Liam Lawson had another poor showing during the sprint qualifying session at Shanghai. He qualified last while his teammate, Max Verstappen, went on to qualify 2nd for the sprint race tomorrow. After the race, Lawson detailed why he never got a proper hot lap done during SQ1.
Last weekend, we saw Liam Lawson get knocked out in Q1. During the race in Melbourne, he did not make much progress and ended up crashing his car during the final stages of the race.
Liam Lawson provides details on his poor Sprint Qualifying performance
After getting knocked out in SQ1, Lawson spoke to the media where he said:
“The first lap was alright, and then we were looking to build on that. But we stayed out to try to cool the tyres on track and, to be honest, I really struggled to get the temps down to start the second lap.”
“So basically we started with the tyres too hot and then I just struggled. It’s frustrating. Small things, it’s really a shame because we started okay in quali. The first lap was relatively okay, it’s just a shame to be out for something so frustrating.”
“Our pace should be a lot further up than where we are. We have tomorrow’s Sprint race to try to learn some things, and tomorrow’s quali as well. We want to do a better job than this.”
Max will start on the front row for Saturday’s Sprint in Shanghai 👏
A really tough session for Liam, but there are fresh opportunities to come tomorrow.
Result 🏁 HAM, Max P2 👏, PIA, LEC, RUS, NOR, ANT, TSU, ALB, STR. Liam P20.#F1 || #ChineseGP 🇨🇳 pic.twitter.com/ffXMyd0s63
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) March 21, 2025
Lawson basically struggled to bring down the tyre temperatures during his out lap. This forced him to cause errors during his hot lap and eventually was not able to put up a quick time on the board.
In order to get the best performance out of the tyres in F1, the drivers will have to maintain temperatures on them. If the tyres are too hot or too cold, they would have no grip on the track. We have often seen drivers complain about tyres being too cold. But in certain conditions where the track temperature is too high, drivers will have a difficult time bringing the temperatures down.
This will probably be a lesson well learned for Lawson. Given that he is still new in Formula 1, he needs to learn a few tricks that will help him maintain tyre temperatures.
Lawson can still turn things around
Despite a poor result in the Sprint Qualifying on Friday, Lawson can still turn things around if he uses the sprint race tomorrow as an additional test session to understand the setup even more. This could help prepare him for the main qualifying session which will take place a couple of hours after the Sprint Race.
During the press conference ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, was asked what advice he had given Lawson after his poor showing in Melbourne. To this, Horner replied:
“I think Liam’s got a pretty sensible head on his shoulders. It was a tough baptism for him. He still came away with the second fastest race lap. And I just told him: ‘Ignore the naysayers, ignore social media, put your head down and you’ll be fine.’ He just needs a bit of time.”
Red Bull’s Decision in Question as Yuki Tsunoda Qualifies P5, Liam Lawson P18 in Australia
This is still only Lawson’s 2nd weekend in the RB21. He still needs to understand the car and Red Bull needs to give him the time and support to do that. Lawson is a long-term project for the Austrian team. Having said that, we cannot ignore the pressure being delivered by his former teammate, Yuki Tsunoda.
While Lawson has been getting adjusted to Red Bull, Yuki Tsunoda has been outperforming him in the VCARB. He is making a statement to everyone in the team that he should have been the driver to be promoted to Red Bull Racing. But right now, Lawson cannot let the pressure get to him. He must focus on the task at hand and just understand the RB21 better with every minute in the car.
