Liam Lawson believes he knows the key to addressing what he termed as a “wasted” performance at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Lawson has endured a torrid start to the F1 2025 campaign, with a rapid promotion to the Red Bull senior team before being dropped back to Racing Bulls in favour of Yuki Tsunoda.

Liam Lawson highlights qualifying performance as key to race reversal

At the time, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner stated he had a duty of care to the young New Zealander whose confidence appeared to nosedive during his two events alongside Max Verstappen.

In seven races with Racing Bulls this season, Lawson has managed four points, all coming courtesy of an eighth-place finish in Monaco as he and team-mate Isack Hadjar controversially worked to delay the field to secure their results.

During their time together at the Faenza-squad, Hadjar has overshadowed his more experienced colleague with five points-paying results, including three in a row across F1’s most recent triple-header.

“Qualifying has not been strong enough for us in general,” Lawson reflected.

“We missed out in Monaco, and we’ve missed out [in Spain], and it’s put us in positions where we’re fighting cars that we’re faster than.

“It feels wasted,” he said of his drive in Spain.

“The car was so fast; we’re really fast in the long run.”

Lawson was 13th on the grid in Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, racing forward to 11th, though one of those positions came courtesy of Kimi Antonelli’s retirement.

The Safety Car triggered by the Italian’s failed Mercedes power unit proved a decisive factor in the final classification.

“We missed the Safety Car line by half a second, maybe, so that’s just unfortunate,” Lawson said.

“We lost so much time on the Safety Car that basically everybody was able to start pushing and we had to just sit behind for four laps.

“Maybe we could have boxed, we probably should have boxed the first lap when the Safety Car came out, but in that situation, sometimes you don’t know.”

More on Liam Lawson from PlanetF1.com

👉 What will Red Bull do if Max Verstappen picks up a race ban?

👉 How Racing Bulls gamed the system in daring Monaco GP stunt

The Spanish GP was a combative one for the 23-year-old, who had clashes with Alex Albon and Oliver Bearman.

“I was trying to overtake how it’s written in the rule book,” Lawson said of his battle with Albon.

“I was making sure to get my front wheels ahead at the apex, which they were, just.

“I didn’t even feel the contact there.

“We caught him [at] a second a lap,” he added of the exchange with Bearman, which occurred as the leaders approached to lap the pair.

“As much as that contact there was completely on me, the lap afterwards he’s still fighting me super hard.

“We’re here to race, so there’s nothing I can do about it, but for sure, we lose race time, both of us, like this.”

Those scraps are evidence of the underlying issue: Lawson is qualifying too far back, which, in turn, forces him to race through the field.

The net result is time lost in traffic, and a finishing position further back than might otherwise have been possible.

“The race pace has been really good,” Lawson said of his experience across the Imola-Monaco-Spain triple-header.

“Race pace [in Spain] was good; we’re killing our tyres behind cars and then still having good speed.

“I think these regulations have potentially suited us a little bit, which he quite cool,” he added of the flexible wing clampdown.

“Obviously, we’ve only been to one track, so we’ll wait and see how they are around the rest.”

The F1 circus heads next to the Canadian Grand Prix, a venue at which Lawson has never driven but nonetheless has high hopes for.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said.

“The car was strong there last year, especially for Daniel [Ricciardo], so we’ll see.”

Read next: Rosberg urges Hadjar to ‘decline’ Red Bull promotion as heads turned