Lawson eyes stability after “whirlwind” start to 2025

With one final race to go before the summer break, Liam Lawson heads to Hungary reflecting on a “whirlwind” first half of the season, but encouraged by recent points momentum and determined to continue his upward trajectory.

Disagreeing with his new Team Principal, Alan Permane’s notion that Lawson’s Belgian Grand Prix outing was “near-perfect”, the Kiwi dissected the damp race which gifted him a third points finish of the season ahead of this weekend’s uncharted challenge in Budapest. 

Lawson booked himself a P9 start for the 44-lap event, with his teammate the driver next up the road after both Racing Bulls representatives flew into a Q3 appearance during Qualifying, however, it wasn’t to be an all-around positive Sunday for the Faenza-based outfit when a power-related issue struck Isack Hadjar on Lap 8. 

As a result, the Frenchman tumbled down the order into an eventual last-place finish, while Lawson inherited a position from Hadjar’s misfortune, moving into eighth place and holding onto the four-point haul through dry tyre crossovers and Sauber attacks.

“It’s always tricky in those conditions when it’s changing,” the #30 said.

“In the car, it felt like it was still quite wet when everyone was putting on slicks — we were actually one of the early cars to do it. 

“If they’d asked me if I thought it was ready, I probably would have said no. 

“Those races are very tricky to judge. 

“For us, we were able to capitalise. 

“In general, the car has been quick recently.

“On most tracks we’ve been to, practice has been quite strong and I feel like we’ve started in a good place and not had too much to work on; it’s just very close right now. 

“Even in Spa, I couldn’t believe that over a nearly two-minute lap, for teams to be within one tenth in Qualifying, it’s very close.”

Speaking on Qualifying specifically, the Kiwi identified the shootout as one of his areas for improvement heading into the second half of the season. 

Since his Red Bull demotion just two races into the season, the head-to-head Qualifying battle between Hadjar and Lawson has been heavily dominated by the Frenchman.

Hadjar leads the count 9-2 after 11 rounds as teammate, with the #30’s triumphs coming in Saudi Arabia, where he qualified 12th while his teammate was 14th, and Austria, where he was the overall highest qualifying Honda RBPT-powered car in P6.

“If I was to just pick an area, overall, it’s qualifying,” Lawson said. 

“With how important it is at the moment because everybody’s very close, even on tracks that are maybe easier to overtake, it’s still difficult because you don’t have a three, four, five-tenth pace advantage. 

“You have like a one or two-tenth pace advantage, and that’s very hard to overtake. 

“Qualifying is very important, it sets up your weekend. 

“Where our weekends have fallen away, at least on my side, has been normally in an average qualifying. 

“Where our weekends have been strong, it’s when we qualify well. 

“That’s the main target: just extracting everything, making sure we have the car in the best place going into qualifying, and then for me getting everything out of it and doing a better job.”

Although entering the season as the most experienced rookie on the grid following two previous stints with RB in 2023 and 2024, the Hungarian Grand Prix is a hurdle Lawson is yet to jump in Formula 1 machinery, but that’s not to say he’s completely out of the loop when it comes to the Hungaroring.

Taking on the 4.38km circuit in both Formula 3 and 2, Lawson has experienced the highs and lows of what the track can provide after both failing to finish and scoring points during his time in the junior series. 

The 23-year-old will hope to replicate the latter, however, carrying momentum from Spa into the final race weekend before the F1 grid enjoys a well-deserved summer break. 

Having been through one of the most turbulent opening halves of the season of anyone on the grid, including being demoted from Red Bull after just two races, settling back into Racing Bulls, and, most recently, the leadership shake-up at Red Bull, time away from the race track is more than welcome by the Kiwi.

“It’s been a whirlwind, especially at the start of the year,” Lawson said.

“Very unexpected, and what was probably a rocky start has now stabilised and we’re in a better place. 

“The speed’s been there most of the year, and it’s nice that we’re finally able to get a couple of good results. 

“As a whole, we need to be doing that more. 

“To have two or three of those races over the first half of the season is not enough. 

“Going forward into the second half of the year, we’re trying to replicate this more. 

“Right now, with how close it is, it’s the little things that make a big difference, trying to extract everything each weekend.”

So, before Lawson can take a breather, he’ll first have to take on one final challenge: the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Returning to a conventional weekend format, three practice sessions will feature across the three days of track action, starting with Free Practice 1 tonight. 

The opening hour of practice will kick off at 21:30 AEST, followed by FP2 at 01:00 AEST on Saturday. 

Image: Simon Galloway/LAT Images // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool.

2025 Hungarian Grand Prix Schedule:

Friday, August 01:

Free Practice 1: 21:30 – 22:30

Saturday, August 02:

Free Practice 2: 01:00 – 02:00

Free Practice 3: 20:30 – 21:30

Sunday, August 03: 

Qualifying: 00:00 – 01:00

Race: 23:00

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