Liam Lawson endured a heartbreaking qualifying session at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai yesterday. The Kiwi struggled to extract pace from his car and failed to make the impact he had hoped for.
Despite showing promise in previous sessions, the Kiwi driver could not find the necessary speed when it mattered most, leaving him with a challenging task for the Grand Prix. Lawson had to focus on damage limitation and a strong recovery drive in the race, something the Kiwi has proven he can do in his past career.
Lawson started the race in the pit lane due to Red Bull making setup changes to the suspension after Lawson was eliminated in Q1 with a lap time of 1.32.174.
A clear indicator that the car and setup of the car is a significant factor in Lawson’s performance to date. The Kiwi came 2nd in the 2023 Super Formula Championship and has a long history of race and championship wins in his career dating back to his karting days. Lawson doesn’t lack talent; anyone who has followed Lawson’s journey knows this. There’s more to this than the driver at hand.
Lawson started on the hard compound tyre and had a strong start to the race, making up two places on the first lap, passing Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto. In comparison, teammate Max Verstappen lost two places.
By lap 7, Verstappen was 6th, 7.8 seconds behind race leader Oscar Piastri. By lap 9, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris complained about front tyre degradation.
After struggling with grip, Pierre Gasly was the first driver on medium tyres to pit on Lap 11. Lawson was the first driver on hard tyres to pit after holding on until Lap 19, swapping to mediums, resulting in Lawson falling back in the field from 9th to 18th, with most of the field having their first pit stop completed.
Eleven laps in, Lawson was reporting grip issues with the medium tyres. It was not unseen as Pierre Gasly pitted after only 11 laps on the exact compound tyre.
“Absolutely no grip,” said Lawson
The Red Bull team opted to pit Lawson a second time to change to a fresh set of hard tyres, losing two positions as the Kiwi fell back to 18th place.
“No balance, absolutely none,” said Lawson on lap 39.
If it wasn’t the car Lawson was struggling with, it was the tyres as the Kiwi pushed to improve position. The Kiwi had found confidence in the car and drove it well, but it seemingly let him down.
Aside from Lawson, it was a McLaren 1-2 at the front of the field. Piastri had a 4.5-second lead on teammate Norris on lap 45 with 11 to go. Russell was another 4.7 seconds behind in third, while Verstappen fought for position in fifth. At this point in the race, Leclerc, Verstappen, and Hamilton were just some drivers struggling to find pace and balance, keeping position and saving tyres.
Rookies Jack Doohan and Isack Hadjar had an on-track incident on lap 46, which resulted in a 10-second time penalty for Doohan for forcing another driver off the track. Doohan was running in 15th place at the time.
Lawson ran in 17th place ahead of Kick Sauber Duo, Bortoleto and Hulkenberg with nine laps to go.
With only eight laps, Racing Bulls driver Tsunoda made a secondary pit stop to change tyres and fix a damaged front wing. The team sent him back out on medium tyres, giving Tsunoda the challenge of fighting back from 19th, 20 seconds behind the driver ahead, Hulkenberg.
As a result of Tsunoda’s second pit stop, Lawson moved up to 16th place, putting him on a mission to chase down Hadjar, who was ahead of the Kiwi by only 1.8 seconds.
With just under two laps to go, Hamilton set the fastest lap of the race while running in sixth place. Meanwhile, Norris and his team were navigating brake issues. The team reported that the problem was now critical, with 1.5 laps to go, as the British driver battled in second place with Russell three seconds behind.
Ultimately, it was a McLaren 1-2 victory, with Piastri coming home from pole position with the win for the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix and Norris crossed the line in second. Russell rounded out the podium for Mercedes.
Lawson finished 16th, but with Doohan’s 10-second time penalty, he will be classified as a 15th-place finish, ahead of Bortoleto, Hulkenberg and Tsunoda.
Lawson had some post-race comments over the team radio;
“Oh my god. It was good for one lap, the balance was good for one lap, and then it’s just no fronts, and then I can’t get on the power,” said Lawson.
“We will just take lessons from today.” the Red Bull Team Engineer replied
What is wrong with that second Red Bull car?! The million-dollar question as F1 takes a two-week break in preparation for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Header Image: Clive Mason/Getty Images via Red Bull Content Pool
Nice to read some positive/supportive comments regards Liam’s performance in the RB21. It has been said numerous times that the car has been designed around Max’s driving style and he likes a lot of front grip – which obviously doesn’t work for most other drivers. Hopefully RB can give Liam a car that he’s comfortable in soon and he can show what he’s really capable of.