Liam Lawson endured another difficult weekend at Red Bull after finishing P15 in the Chinese Grand Prix.
The New Zealander suffered a second pit lane start after qualifying in last place, with Red Bull electing to change his suspension setup under parc ferme.
Even with the tweaks, Lawson struggled to make an impact in the race and could only manage to climb up to P15, which was partially down to a collision for Gabriel Bortoleto at the start and damage for Yuki Tsunoda forcing him to pit late in the race and drop to last.
Lawson was always expected to have a difficult challenge as Max Verstappen’s teammate, but he’s now suffered the worst start to a Red Bull driver career in the team’s history. Bernie Collins believes the team should have copied Mercedes in one area before the start of the season to prevent this when speaking on Sky Sports F1.
Bernie Collins thinks Liam Lawson should have been given more time in an old Red Bull
Mercedes took Andrea Kimi Antonelli on board this season, giving the 18-year-old an extensive testing programme before the start of the season which included running him in older-spec cars.
It appeared to pay off, with Antonelli finishing fourth in his first race and gaining another top-ten place in China. Lawson only had 11 races of experience before he was thrust in at Red Bull, but Collins thinks they should have tested him more extensively in older cars.
“We’ve spoken about how the Red Bull is a very tricky car to drive. It’s not the same as a Racing Bulls. What I’d love to know is why did Red Bull not do a similar programme to Mercedes with Liam Lawson,” said Collins.
“Why was he not doing a similar amount of test days in a four-year-old Red Bull, it’s going to have the same characteristics, there is no cost cap limit in that. He could’ve stepped into that car in a much stronger position if he did that.”
What Liam Lawson told his engineer after ‘slog’ Chinese Grand Prix
Lawson’s weekend was not much better in the Sprint when he finished in P14, having complained about lack of grip from his tyres.
The tyres were particularly hard to get into temperature this weekend, largely due to the resurfaced Shanghai circuit. Pirelli also increased the minimum pressures after seeing excessive wear on Friday, which made it even harder to get them into a working window.
| Driver | Engineer |
| Lawson: “Oh my god man.” | |
| Wood: “Yeah it was a bit of slog today.” | |
| Lawson: “Dude. It lasted one lap. Balance was good for one lap and then it’s just no fronts, and then I can’t get on power.” | |
| Lawson: “Sorry mate. Honestly I tried everything I could to help that.” |
He struggled in both Sprint and the normal Grand Prix qualifying to get any life into his tyres, dropping out in the first part of qualifying on both occasions.
Lawson could see himself swapped for Yuki Tsunoda if he failed to improve, with Red Bull looking at the next race in Suzuka as a key weekend they will us to judge where to go next.
Leave feedback about this