Liam Lawson says his strong pace in Formula 2 this year has often come undone from misfortune.
However, the young Kiwi is remaining optimistic in his chase for a first championship title in Europe.
Lawson kicked off his rookie F2 campaign with a hiss and a roar, winning the season opener in Bahrain.
Since then, the Red Bull Junior has claimed one further podium, a pole position and momentarily had scored another win before being disqualified.
The championship cracks over its halfway point this weekend in Silverstone.
Reflecting on the past three rounds, Lawson acknowledged his speed has been solid this year.
However, mechanical issues, set-up troubles and being caught up in other people’s accidents means he remains unsatisfied.
“[The season] has been okay,” Lawson told Velocity News. “The pace has been really good.
“This is probably the first time in four years in Europe I’ve had a real opportunity to fight for a title.
“But we have just been in really unfortunate places, and a lot of points have gone down the drain.
“I think we just need a clean weekend.
“The good thing is that the pace is there. But we can’t keep going the way we are.”
Lawson’s most commanding drive this year has arguably been his triumph in a wet Monaco sprint race.
He pulled off a bold lunge on Oscar Piastri at La Rascasse in slippery conditions before pulling away to claim victory.
Unfortunately, a post-race investigation concluded Lawson had used an illegal throttle map setting for the race start, and he was duly disqualified.
Still, Lawson says the ‘win’ is the highlight of the year so far.
“The win in Monaco, even though it got taken away from us,” he said when asked what the best moment from the season has been.
“That one was extra special.
“I remember in 2015 when I got the Speedsport Scholarship, I saw Richie Stanaway win in Monaco in GP2. I remember thinking how cool that was.
“I used to watch all his GP2 races with Mitch Evans.
“So, yeah, to win in Monaco was really cool.”
Lawson is eighth in the driver’s standings, 28 points behind leader Guanyu Zhou.
With the title in mind, the Kiwi says the plan for the rest of the season is to take it one race at a time.
“I think we take it race by race.
“It is too easy to get caught up in the championship.
“But right now, we are not in a position to defend. We need to push and start taking some points back from the leaders.”
