Worrying onboard assessment of Liam Lawson from qualifying disaster
A concerning observation has been made about Liam Lawson after his sprint qualifying woes in China.
Liam Lawson is lacking confidence and is “not at one” with his Red Bull F1 car, it has been claimed.
The 22-year-old New Zealander suffered a qualifying disaster for the sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix as he ended up being knocked out of SQ1 with the slowest time of the 20 drivers.
Lawson, who replaced Sergio Perez at Red Bull for 2025, has now failed to escape the first part of qualifying in both sessions he has contested so far this year.
It comes after Lawson was eliminated in Q1 during last weekend’s season opener in Australia and could only qualify 18th at Albert Park. He went on to crash out of his debut race for Red Bull.
In contrast, Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen qualified second, just 0.018s behind Lewis Hamilton, who claimed a first pole position for Ferrari.
Analysing Lawson’s onboard lap around the Shanghai International Circuit, ex-F1 driver Karun Chandhok said: “He couldn’t get the tyres down.
“As he comes up towards Turn 2, really struggling for grip. Has to have four different bites of the cherry but still misses the apex of Turn 2.
“Then struggling for traction, the rear of the car squirming around. So already he just can’t find any grip there.
“Turn 6, goes in OK, bit tentative with the wheel. That’s not a driver I would say who is full of confidence and able to just commit to the apex.
“Middle sector of the lap, in the high-speed, fairly healthy lift there for [Turn] 7, brings the car in, again some little corrections there for 8. He’s again missed the apex.
“To me, the body language I’m seeing from Lawson in contrast to Verstappen, is just he doesn’t the confidence to attack the corner entries with the steering wheel.
“You can see he’s tentative, he’s nervous. He’s not comfortable or confident driving that car. Again small corrections as he opens up the wheel onto the long back straight.
“Again, at the hairpin, not clean, messy, gets on the outside kerb. On the whole, that is a clear sign of a driver who is not at one with that car.”
Liam Lawson apologises to Red Bull
Lawson was heard apologising to Red Bull over team radio.
“Mate, I’m really sorry but I just… Honestly I could not get the tyres down,” he said.
Speaking after sprint qualifying, Lawson said: “I went off on my second lap. Obviously a shame. From a starting point it wasn’t too bad. The first lap was alright and we were looking to build from there.
“We stayed out to try and cool the tyres and I really struggled to get the temperatures down. We started too hot and through the lap I struggled. It’s frustrating.
“It’s small things. It’s really a shame because I think we started OK in quali and the first lap wasn’t amazing but it was relatively OK.
“It’s just a shame to be out for something so frustrating.”
Lawson added: “For sure, our pace should be a lot further up than where we are.
“We have tomorrow’s sprint race to try and learn some stuff and tomorrow’s qualifying as well, obviously we want to do a better job than this.”
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for Crash.net around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
