Liam Lawson ends the first half of his 2025 F1 stint with confidence and momentum as he headed for the summer break. The New Zealand driver described it as “a very tough year” for the Racing Bulls team, but ending the first half of the season on a high note is uplifting, especially looking back at the team at the beginning of the 2025 season.
Lawson’s eighth-place finish in Hungary capped off a promising recent run; though the results weren’t linear, the Kiwi showcased momentum towards the halfway point of the season that proved a points finish was imminent for him after a rocky beginning with Racing Bulls.
A rollercoaster beginning
Speaking in the print media pen after the Hungarian Grand Prix, Lawson recognized the turbulent highs and lows that he was experiencing at the beginning. However he emphasized that as progress builds, everyone must focus on what’s actually working and do their best to keep it in motion for the rest of the season.
“It’s been a very tough year,” Lawson admitted after getting dropped by Red Bull following the Chinese GP.
“So I think it’s hard to string together a series of good results in F1, and recently it’s been good for us. But obviously, we have another whole second half to go, and we need to learn from what’s working right now and try and take that forward.”
Small changes are the building blocks
While the changes may be evident in terms of results, the young driver believes they haven’t been as significant or drastic:
“To be honest, nothing huge has changed,” Lawson explained.
Instead, he credits the small differences that have contributed to an overall performance shift that helped him reach a comfortable place with the VCARB 02; changes that began to take effect around the Austrian Grand Prix earlier this summer. He finished P6 there, followed by 8th at Spa and Hungary.
“Since Austria, I’ve felt that comfort. But the speed has always been there since the start of the season, since we did the switch,” he shared. “We just had a lot of small things through that first part of the year, and the consistency wasn’t there, and now it is.”
Consistency is key
While his growth has been prevalent, the Racing Bulls driver isn’t under any illusion when it comes to the challenges of maintaining consistency in a competitive series like Formula 1.
“It’s very tough to keep that [consistency], so we need to try and focus on keeping that.”
A recurring theme in Lawson’s answers where he emphasizes the importance of pinpointing where things are going great for the team so they can build upon it during the critical second half without any delays.
With several familiar circuits on the horizon, including some where Lawson has prior F1 experience, the Kiwi hopes that track familiarity will give him an edge heading into the rest of the season.
“I think it’s obviously good to go to tracks that you’ve done in F1, and some tracks that I really enjoy as well are coming up. So I think the second half is going to be exciting, I’m looking forward to it.”
Focus remains in the present
When asked about his future with Racing Bulls, the driver remained pragmatic, stating that he is focused on boosting his performance and having more good races: “Honestly, in terms of my future, it’s been so busy this year that I’m not really thinking about it,” he shared.
“I’m focused on having some good races, obviously we’ve had some recently, but three of them isn’t enough over 12 races or however many it’s been, so we need to do more of this, and we’ll see.”
