VCARB’s Liam Lawson reflects on his pointless F1 Italian Grand Prix weekend. The Aussie driver explains how an alternate strategy failed to pay off.
Liam Lawson endured a difficult Italian Grand Prix weekend in Monza. A disappointing showing in qualifying left Lawson with all to do during Sunday’s Grand Prix when a track limits violation saw his fastest Q1 lap deleted. A coming together with Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda on Sunday further scuppered his hopes at the team’s home Grand Prix.
Given his disappointing grid position for the Grand Prix, Lawson’s side of the garage gambled on an undercut strategy. Starting the Grand Prix on soft tyres, Lawson pitted on lap ten. Speaking after the Grand Prix, Lawson was asked where his race strategy had fallen short.
“I think if we’d had a slightly better pace maybe on the start of that stint on the hard,” Lawson explained in the print media pen. “We were undercutting all the cars in front and we nearly got the full pack but I think it was Fernando [Alonso] maybe, who came out in front and that’s what started to push us back.
“I was behind him and then I had cars behind me, on older tyres. It was tough but I think had we been able to clear that pack it might have been an easier race but it just didn’t work.”
With Racing Bulls scoring a podium at the hands of Lawson’ teammate Isack Hadjar last time out in Zandvoort, the team’s apparent drop in pace in Italy was also called into question. As both Racing Bulls drivers failed to progress to Q2 on Saturday, track characteristics were a key talking point.
When asked about the pace delta in comparison to Zandvoort, Lawson admitted track characteristics played a role. Despite this, he claims other issues throughout the weekend affected the team’s performance.
“Yeah, I mean Monza is very unique,” he explained. “Obviously very low downforce here and I don’t think it was necessarily slow but compared to last week yes it wasn’t as strong but we also had our fair share of issues this weekend which didn’t help us through the weekend so it’s probably not as bad as it looks.”
With the highs and lows of the previous two Grands Prix, the next event in Baku poses a different challenge. Presenting high speed straights similar to Monza, balanced with slow technical corners similar to Zandvoort, the Baku Street circuit could prove difficult for the team.
When asked about the challenge of Baku, Lawson remained calm. Despite acknowledging a tough race for the team in 2024, the young Aussie claimed the team will stick to the pre race process.
“We’ll just run the simulations and try and come up with the best balance we can and then see how the car is here,” Lawson replied. “I think last year it was a pretty tough race for the team but hopefully this year with how the car’s been recently we can have a strong weekend.”
