While Red Bull would prefer to forget the Austrian Grand Prix as quickly as possible, its sister team, Racing Bulls, made some positive strides, particularly through the efforts of Liam Lawson. The New Zealander finished sixth after a strong weekend, marking the best result of his fledgling Formula 1 career. After a disappointing start to the season with Red Bull and several lackluster races with the sister team, Lawson feels his hard work is finally paying off.
With a daring one-stop strategy, Lawson fought his way to sixth place in Spielberg. An encouraging result, and one that comes at a crucial time. “Of course, it’s nice to put in a good performance,” he responded enthusiastically. “We’re all focused and spend a lot of time maintaining the right mindset. And of course, I’ve known all year that I hadn’t really achieved a good result yet, so it’s extra nice that it’s finally happening.”
Red Bull Exit
Lawson admits that the lack of performance was gnawing at him. “Sometimes you have all the confidence and speed in the world, but it doesn’t click – and that’s how this year felt,” he said candidly. “So to finally achieve a good result is great, but at the same time, we need to maintain this.” It was only his second points finish of the season, after previously finishing eighth in Monaco. In Austria, Lawson started strong with an impressive qualification. In the opening round, he briefly fell back to P9 due to the chaos following the collision between Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli, but he recovered well and finished higher than his colleagues from both Racing Bulls and Red Bull.Horner Regrets ‘Terrible’ Race in Austria: ‘Title for Verstappen Unrealistic’
Despite his season so far being far from flawless. After just two races, Lawson was sidelined by Red Bull earlier this year. His return to Racing Bulls – in the more predictable VCARB02 – initially brought little improvement; he had to admit defeat to his new teammate, rookie Isack Hadjar, on several occasions.
Staying Realistic
However, everything fell into place at the Red Bull Ring. “We made some changes this weekend, and they really paid off,” Lawson revealed. “We really pushed the car to the limit – especially on my side of the garage. The team managed to set up the car exactly to my liking.”
Yet, Lawson remains realistic. “It was a good weekend – but we need to keep this up,” he concluded. “We had the speed in Canada, Barcelona, and Monaco too, but we failed to translate that into good points. But well, that’s how it sometimes goes in Formula 1. Sometimes the speed is there, and everything that comes with it, but there are so many variables in this sport – and they finally worked in our favor this weekend.” An interesting detail: Liam Lawson now ranks above Yuki Tsunoda in the drivers’ standings.
