Lawson quickly settles into Japanese Super Formula 

Liam Lawson took a win on debut in the Japanese Super Formula series over the weekend, with the talented New Zealander giving an insight into his weekend.

Known for its very quick Dallara SF23 open wheelers and its clean and highly competitive driving, it has been a series for F1, F2 and IndyCar drivers to cut their teeth in due to the competitive, if not faster machines in some cases.

Pierre Gasly competed there for two wins in 2017 before being elevated to the Toro Rosso F1 seat that year, and Lawson – a Red Bull Junior driver – has chosen the same path over another F2 season following Nick De Vries being elevated into the vacant sister team Red Bull AlphaTauri seat.

Lawson takes to the Fuji Speedway with the famous Mount Fuji in the backdrop, taking a debut victory in the Super Formula

Having had several experiences in an F1 Free Practice session, the last of which he greatly impressed in Max Verstappen’s championship winning RB18 in Abu Dhabi, Lawson gave a comparison of the Dallara SF23.

“The car is extremely fast, faster than Formula 2, and a lot closer to Formula 1, and sometimes it even feels like F1 in some corners. Downforce is pretty exceptional,” Lawson said, who now drives for Team Mugen.

“I knew coming here to Japan that the series would be at a very high level because I know a lot of the drivers that have raced here before. 

“What has impressed me, that I didn’t quite expect, is the very high level of the cars and the teams. The teams are impressive, the way they operate.”

Lawson had to go into qualifying very raw due to Free Practice being cancelled, and after never having experienced Fuji Speedway, or the car for that matter, he put it in P3 before taking out his debut victory.

Lawson made his debut for Team Mugen in the Qualifying session, taking P3 before going onto a Race 1 victory

“Learning on the go a little bit but the team did a great job coming into the weekend, with no practice and having to guess a baseline set-up. It’s really impressive that they have put together something this strong. So happy to win Race 1.”

“And the competition, these guys have obviously raced here a long time, they are very experienced, so they don’t make many mistakes and they are very fast.”

In the final Race 2, Lawson also managed to finish on the podium for a P3, but a five second penalty sent him back into P5.

“Today, Race 2, P5 in the end after the penalty which is unfortunate but I guess the rules are the rules. 

“To be honest, the leader was driving pretty erratically, so I was pretty frustrated to see that I was penalised when he wasn’t but that’s how it goes sometimes.”

Next up for Lawson is the famous Suzuka Circuit on April 21–23, with the Kiwi looking to keep on heaping pressure on De Vries’ F1 seat.

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