After a turbulent start to his first full Formula 1 season, Liam Lawson achieved his first points in 2025 at the Monaco GP.
The mandatory pit stops introduced for the F1 Monaco GP led Lawson to undertake an unusual approach to his race strategy. Having qualified behind his teammate Isack Hadjar, Lawson was tasked with driving slowly around the track, backing up the rest of the field and creating a pit stop gap for his teammate on two occasions.
Lawson succeeded with this as his teammate crossed the line in sixth place. The driver from New Zealand also secured a good result for himself, contributing to a double-points finish for the team, finishing in P8.
Unorthodox race with mandatory pit stops
Lawson drove purposefully slowly around the streets of Monaco to create pit stop gaps for Hadjar. As this was a mandatory two-stop race, Lawson had to do this twice, frustrating many drivers behind him.
Despite using an unorthodox racing strategy, the Racing Bulls executed it so well that it was copied by the Williams drivers. Lawson reflected on the double-points finish for the team.
“There’s always a potential. Obviously, when we make a decision like that, our race is limited to basically where I was in P8. But honestly, it’s hard to overtake here anyway. For us, on our side, the damage was done in quali yesterday. For the team, it’s a great result.”
Driving slower did not necessarily make the race much easier for the driver. Lawson shared the unique challenges that racing this way provided.
“It’s actually really a lot more difficult than I expected from a concentration point. It’s something that from a team side made sense, it’s not often you have a plan that executes perfectly.”
Finally achieved points after a rough start to the season
Although we are only one third into the 2025 Formula 1 season, it has been particularly eventful for Lawson. From making his Red Bull debut to soon being demoted down to Racing Bulls, Lawson has had more pressure to perform than most.
Finally with points to his name after the Monaco GP, Lawson responded to whether this result has taken some off this pressure off.
“Not really, honestly. It’s great to score points, but, obviously, I wanted to finish higher. It’s a good step that we made this weekend. But I think we’re always looking for more.”
Now driving for Red Bull’s sister team, chances to score points are fewer and far between. Lawson reflectively positively on the good result for him and his teammate.
“It’s very good. Not often you go into a weekend as a team we’re trying to score both cars in the points. It’s very rare that we’re able to do that. To have done that today is pretty cool.”
Expecting big changes with Barcelona’s new regulations
Formula 1 will next head to Barcelona for the conclusion of this triple-header. Off the back of this positive performance for Racing Bulls, Lawson is hoping for more of the same, especially with the updated front wing regulations that will come into place.
“We’re looking for more of the same and we’ll be pushing for that in Barcelona next week and with the races coming up. In Barcelona there’s going to be some changes with the regulations so for everybody, we’re going to be trying to adapt pretty quickly. But the target’s the same.”
Teams have been manipulating the flexibility of their rear and front wings to gain speed over their competitors. Hoping to clamp down on this, the FIA will introduce stricter tests for front wings at the next race for the Barcelona GP. As the teams will have to adjust their car designs, Lawson shared how this creates unknowns regarding who will be competitive at the next race.
“It possibly can. But it depends. We don’t know how much teams are doing, what things teams are doing at the moment. So, we’ll try and make our car as best adapted to it. For everyone else, it’s a mystery.”
