Liam Lawson’s lessons learned en route to a career best qualifying in Azerbaijan

Liam Lawson’s most recent qualifying performance at the Italian Grand Prix left a lot to be desired, but he and his Racing Bulls team were able to follow up that disappointment with a career-best third-place qualifying finish in Azerbaijan.

That came despite a record-breaking number of red flags, unpredictable wind gusts, and changeable weather conditions. Here’s how Lawson and his team did it.

Liam Lawson breaks down Azerbaijan quali turnaround

Liam Lawson has followed a career-worst qualifying in Monza with a career-best qualifying in Baku — and he did it because his Racing Bulls team played it safe amidst a session of chaos.

The team was confident that both cars would make it through Q1 ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, only for Lawson to lose his flying lap time after the violated track limits at the first Lesmo. With no fuel remaining in the tank to try for a second lap, he had to concede that 20th was the best he could hope for.

Lawson described the error to media, including PlanetF1.com, as being “soul-destroying,” and it resulted in a challenging race.

But after an off weekend, the Kiwi driver is back, and in Baku, he secured his best-ever qualifying performance.

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It must be said that qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was jam-packed with chaos. The hour-long session stretched out to two hours as six red flags punctuated the high-speed action.

Cool temperatures, gusty winds, smatterings of rain, different tyre compounds, and the narrow nature of Baku itself saw one driver after another caught out by mistakes — either their own, or the mistakes of others.

“It was a good session. It’s been a good weekend so far; it’s been very tricky, though,” Lawson admitted in the post-qualifying FIA press conference.

“I think that quali was one of the toughest ones we’ve probably experienced — trying to keep putting out laps, especially when the rain’s coming down. And the amount of red flags that there were as well, it was definitely a challenge.

“But the car’s been good, honestly, all weekend. We’ve just been fine-tuning, and I think it was in the right place.

“But when a session’s like that, honestly, it’s more down to just putting a lap together and making sure that you have good track position and don’t get caught out by these red flags.”

That was exactly what Lawson did, particularly in Q3. The already-short session was chopped up thanks to two red flag periods. Liam Lawson was one of three drivers who was able to set a flying lap in between those two red flags, which left him second in the standings for quite some time. Then, come the end of the session, the Kiwi driver was third.

That’s a major difference when compared to the trials of Monza, and Lawson admitted that that’s due to a major change in the team’s approach to the session.

“I think we fuelled for the session, did the whole session, and just kept driving around!” he said with a laugh.

“We made a mistake in Monza and took a bit of a risk, but we knew the car was fast. But just with how close it is this year you can still be fast and have something happen and get knocked out.

“So today, with everything that was going on and the conditions, we played it a bit safer and we maximised laps on track.

“We probably completed three or four laps but spent the entire qualifying — when it was green — pretty much on the track. So obviously for today, it worked for us.”

Asked about the mindset it takes to tackle a qualifying session like this one, Lawson replied, “You have to push the limits, and sometimes if you push a little bit harder, you can get rewarded. But obviously it’s very easy to crash here as well.

“So through quali, you’re managing it, trying to drive good laps, keep everything together and learn as much as you can with the wind and everything.

“But at the same time, with how much it’s changing, you start a new lap and it’s completely new, the feeling of the car, different corners — and it can be really confusing. Especially over such a long lap, it’s very challenging for us.”

When it comes to the race itself, the Kiwi driver has admitted that it’s tough to know exactly what’s possible.

“Obviously, we’d love to stay where we are, but we’re aware of the guys that we’re racing as well, and we know that there’s some quicker guys behind us,” he said.

“We’ll try and obviously have a good start, that’s the first thing. I think our long-run pace was okay, but honestly, when the conditions are as windy as they were today, it changes everything. So, yeah, let’s see tomorrow.”

Baku is a track that does encourage overtaking, so Lawson will have his work cut out for him. But if qualifying showed us anything, it’s that anything is possible in Azerbaijan.

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