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Retirement “cherry on top” of Lawson’s difficult Canadian GP

Liam Lawson, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, on track during the 2025 F1 Canadian Grand Prix.

By Reese Mautone

Liam Lawson’s “difficult” Canadian Grand Prix campaign ended in retirement due to a cooling issue towards the end of the race, wrapping up a weekend already compromised by a pre-race power unit change and pitlane start.

Sunday at the Canadian Grand Prix was a tricky one for the #30, with a poor qualifying performance dooming Lawson to start the race from the second last row of the grid.

Working around the lacklustre P18 result, Racing Bulls made the decision to introduce a new power unit for Lawson’s VCARB 02 ahead of the race.

The changes included a new Internal Combustion Engine, Turbo Charger, Motor Generator Unit – Heat (MGU-H), Energy Store and Control Electronics, whilst also making adjustments to the suspension setup under parc fermé conditions and without the permission of the FIA Technical Delegate.

As a result, Lawson was handed a 50-place grid penalty (each element warranting a 10-place penalty) and was forced to start from the pitlane ahead of only Pierre Gasly.

When the five lights went out, the duo were already on the back foot as they dragged their cars towards the rear of the field.

Starting on the hard compound tyre, Lawson soon found himself within DRS range of the home racer, Lance Stroll, however, overtaking was hard to come by for the Kiwi who opted to bide his time and wait for his alternate tyre strategy to carry him up the order.

With Gasly just four-tenths back in his mirrors, it wasn’t a relaxing run to his first pitstop — instead, Lawson became the leader of an unrelenting DRS train after the medium tyre starters had completed their first stops. 

Alpine played the team game, enacting team orders after Gasly failed to complete the pass to allow Franco Colapinto — on fresher tyres — to have a turn. 

Under attack, the Kiwi’s 38-lap-old C4s didn’t stand a chance in holding position over the Argentine driver, with Colapinto getting the move done with ease.

On the following lap, Lawson accepted defeat and pulled into the pitlane for his first and only pitstop of the race, binning his hard compound tyres in favour of a fresh set of mediums.

He emerged from the pit exit in last place and was unable to make his way back through the field — however, that soon became the least of the RB driver’s problems when he received the radio message that he had to box to retire from the Canadian Grand Prix on Lap 56.

Lawson was met with an apology over team radio as he pulled into retirement, told: “Really sorry, mate. It’s been a hard day and this is the cherry on top, but we had to take care of the PU.”

He watched the remaining laps tick by from the RB garage, with the team ultimately missing out on points as Isack Hadjar could only manage a P16 finish from his penalised starting position.

“It was always going to be a difficult race starting from the pit lane, but we took the decision to install a new PU after a tough Quali yesterday,” Lawson said. 

“A cooling issue towards the end of today’s race meant we unfortunately had to retire, which is a shame given the pace of the car this weekend was good. 

“We’ll keep working on the speed and I’ll keep working on myself to reset ahead of Austria.”

Racing Bulls Team Principal Laurent Mekies admitted the Canadian Grand Prix weekend was a disappointment across the board for a team that’s grown used to snatching up the final points-paying positions in 2025.

“We arrived in Montréal with good expectations after three very strong weekends in Europe,” Mekies said. 

“However, we knew how tough this circuit is and how intense the battle in the midfield would be.” 

The Team Principal added: “Everything started to become a bit more difficult today with Isack starting in P12 and Liam from the pit lane, as we took the opportunity to introduce a new PU on his car after a difficult result in Qualifying. 

“The hard fact is that we didn’t have enough pace today to fight in the top ten. 

“Isack suffered high graining on his tyres during the first stint on the mediums and sadly we had to retire Liam’s car due to an issue in the cooling system. 

“It’s a tight battle in the midfield and even only one-tenth can make the difference, and today it was enough to drop back instead of attacking forward. 

“Looking back at the last few months, every single improvement we’ve made as a team has been made after tough weekends like this one in Canada. 

“We certainly take some positives from this weekend and the fight is on, so we’ll keep pushing all together in Faenza and Milton Keynes to come back stronger. 

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to do it straight away at our next home race in Austria in a couple of weeks.”

The disappointing outcome calls for a moment to reset — and that’s exactly what Lawson, Hadjar and the entire RB team will get before Formula 1 returns to Europe in two weeks’ time.

Hosted in the Styrian hills, the Austrian Grand Prix will run across June 27-29 as the first race of the upcoming double-header. 

Image: Zak Mauger/LAT Images // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool.

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