Lawson says recent results 'not enough', needs more good races
The 23-year-old Racing Bulls put in a great performance at Monday's Belgian Grand Prix, making it into Q3 and crossing the finish line in eighth – bagging four points in a race marred by mixed conditions and delays.
Following the race, Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane said Lawson had a 'near-perfect race'.
Ahead of Monday's race at the Hungaroring, Lawson said, in the context of the whole season so far, of which he has scored points in three races: "It's not enough.
'We need to be doing it on nearly every weekend if that's the target,' he said.
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'To have two or three of those races over the first half of the season is not enough. So obviously, going forward to the second half of the year, we're trying to replicate this more.'
He said the biggest challenge faced by teams and drivers this year was the closeness of the grid.
Liam Lawson of New Zealand driving the (30) Visa Cash App Racing Bulls VCARB 02 on track at Silverstone (Source: Getty)
Lawson's best Q3 lap in Belgium was just over 0.1 seconds slower than Williams driver Alex Albon's, which landed him in fifth. The pace of the cars this season wasn't just influencing qualifying, Lawson said, but also race day.
'Even on tracks that are maybe easier to overtake, they're sort of difficult because you don't have a three, four, or five-tenth pace advantage, you have a one or two-tenth pace advantage.'
It meant qualifying was now even more critical, which Lawson admitted had been a struggle for him this year.
'I think where our weekends are falling away, at least on my side, has been normally in an average qualifying.
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'The main target is just extracting everything I think through practice on the weekends, making sure we have the car in the best place going into qualifying and then for me as well getting everything out of it and just doing a better job honestly.''
Hungary also marks the final race before the summer break – meaning Lawson would have finished his first half-season as a full-time driver.
Reflecting on the season so far, Lawson said he was starting to find some stability after a 'rocky' and 'unexpected' start – adjusting to a new team after being dropped by Red Bull after just two races.
'We're in a better place now. But I think, in general, the speed's been there most of the year and it's nice that we're able to get a couple of good results.
'But as I said, I think 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.'
Lawson is back on track at 11.30pm on Friday night (NZ time) for the first practice session of the weekend. Qualifying starts at 2am on Sunday, and it's lights out at 1am on Monday for the race.
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Liam Lawson has finished in the points again with the New Zealander holding off Red Bull's reigning Formula One world champion Max Verstappen to take eighth place at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
