‘I thought I was illegal’ – Lawson reveals ‘extremely distracting’ beep cost him six seconds at US GP
A software bug cost Liam Lawson time under a VSC at COTA
Liam Lawson was hit with an “extremely distracting” software malfunction during the United States Grand Prix, costing him “six seconds” behind the Virtual Safety Car.
Lawson finished the Grand Prix in ninth place behind the top four teams’ drivers, and extended his advantage as ‘best of the rest’ in the Drivers’ Championship to 35 points ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
Liam Lawson explains distracting software malfunction
Lawson lined up in ninth place on the Circuit of The Americas grid and had a solid race, running in ninth behind George Russell and the McLaren teammates.
Although he wasn’t involved in their battle for positions, Lawson had the measure of Gasly in the fight to be best of the rest on the track.
The New Zealander took the chequered flag in ninth place, eight seconds ahead of Gasly, as he continued his streak of points-scoring results.
However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing.
A Virtual Safety Car when Valtteri Bottas pulled off down the back straight to retire his Cadillac with four laps to go meant the driver had to slow down and maintain a delta pace.
As a precaution, there is an alarm that beeps if a driver is exceeding the delta time.
Lawson’s alarm went off, and even though he dropped his pace even further, six seconds to the good on the delta time, the alarm continued to beep.
“When the VSC came out, we went into a double yellow, and we get alarms that basically beep when you’re going too quickly, and it was really loud,” he explained.
“It’s basically to warn us not to be illegal on the delta, and it was just stuck on the whole time.
“So I thought I was illegal, and I’m slowing right down, and then I look down, and I’m like six seconds positive, so I’m good.
“But the thing’s beeping in my ear, so [it was] extremely distracting.
“But I think it might have been a bug that everybody had. Another software issue.”
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Introducing new parts for the Racing Bulls F1 car this weekend, both Lawson and his teammate Arvid Lindblad progressed to the qualifying shoot-out on Saturday.
Lawson, though, didn’t set a lap time in Q3 as Racing Bulls deliberately decided to save his fresh tyres for Sunday’s race.
Although he said at the time that he “would have loved to have a go in Q3”, he supported the team’s decision after the Grand Prix.
“It’s good. I mean, the car’s been working well now, and obviously with upgrades this weekend, it’s nice to see them working well. So yeah, everything.
“I think we’ve done a good job at executing this weekend. We came into the race with plenty of tyres as well, saving them from yesterday, and then we didn’t need to use them. But I think that’s a good sign.”
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