Points required in Qatar by both Lawson and Tsunoda

Three good things came out of Liam Lawson’s Las Vegas Grand Prix last weekend.  He didn’t crash, he held his own against from ferocious attacks and he finished the race.  The big negative is that he failed to score points and for me, it had all the hallmarks of some of his racing in Japan last season in the Super Formula Series where too often both Lawson and the team got the tyre strategy quite wrong.

“We tried to one stop and stretch it, but I think we tried to stretch that second stint a little too long and ended up boxing, coming out nowhere, it just didn’t work,” commented Lawson after the Grand Prix.   

I don’t think I could have put it better myself. 

What makes it worse is that his Visa Cash App RB Formula One teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, got it right, finishing in the points in ninth place.  In fact, Tsunoda beat him all weekend, in practice, qualifying and the race.  As a one-off GP, it was not a good look for Lawson.  In the grander scheme of things, every driver will have an off day.

So now to the Qatar Grand Prix this weekend.  It is all about the fight for sixth place in the Constructors Championship. Scoring any points in both the Sprint Race and Grand Prix is imperative. No points could be deemed as a failure.

Visa Cash App RB Formula One are currently eighth (46), three points behind Alpine Renault (49) and four points behind Haas F1 (50).

“Qatar is a very tough track that was probably the hardest race I did last year,” commented Lawson.  “It’s a weekend where we need to score some points to be in for the fight for P6, so we’ll be making sure we maximise the car as much as we can.”

Lawson has finished all his F1 races.  There will be more pressure for the last two races for the 2024 season to secure points which means more revenue for the team. 

“The temperature last year was pretty warm, so hopefully it will be cooler this year. It’s also very high speed, which I’m looking forward to. It’s a sprint weekend, which makes it challenging; we need to be pushing quite hard, quite early to make sure we’re in a good window for SQ.”