Liam Lawson had good reason to have doubts heading to the 2024 Pirelli United Staes Formula One Grand Prix over the weekend. Having not raced since the end of the 2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship, he considered himself ‘rusty’. That was not the case. In fact, his full-time debut with the Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team eclipsed his astonishing performance as a fill-in for injured Daniel Ricciardo at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix. This time the Kiwi driver finished in ninth gaining valuable points for his team, beat his team mate Yuki Tsunoda and did both having started from the back of the grid.
“It was a good race; I didn’t expect that to be honest,” commented Lawson after the race. “We had a great first lap, I just went for every little gap and made up some positions.
We knew how good his return to the F1 grid would be after the first qualifying session for the Grand Prix, where he was third quickest in the field.
“Q1 pace was very strong for us, we made some positive changes to the car from yesterday and it’s great to have that performance. The focus was to get through to Q1 and then help get Yuki into Q3, slip streaming him down the straights.”
With a grid penalty for an engine change, there was no need for Lawson to go any quicker in Q2, as it would make no difference to his starting position at the rear of the field.
Come the race, Lawson seemed to be very happy with the car and their race-strategy.
“We made a really good step up with the car yesterday, which we hoped would replicate in the race today and thankfully it did. The car was really strong, and it did exactly what we hoped it would do. The Hard [tyre] works well for us, and we had good pace too.
“When I boxed and we got some clean air we were able to keep extending longer than we’d planned and I think for me, doing yesterday’s sprint, I took notes from what others were doing, which really helped.
“The whole team have put a lot of effort into preparing me for this, a lot of extra hours knowing it was my first weekend back in the car so a big thanks to everyone in the team for making this happen. Mexico is a very different track so we’ll see what we can do there next week.”
Speculation will continue on his and other ‘drivers’ futures. All Lawson needs to do is deliver the same consistent performance each week and gain that much needed experience to move up towards the podium. We have five more races this season to enjoy the ride. Bring it on!
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