In the end, the 10 second penalty for Liam Lawson during the 2025 Saudia Arabian F1 Grand Prix hasn’t really mattered, moving him from 11th across the line to 12th overall. It was a solid performance over the 50-lap race and overall a good weekend for the Kiwi driver who certainly looks more at home, more confident and getting to grips with what is likely to be his role in the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula One Team for the rest of the season.
It’s hard to believe that nearing the end of April we have already had five Grand Prix, the last three on consecutive weekends. That may have been the best thing for Lawson having been in the limelight following his dramatic dumping as teammate to Max Verstappen in the Oracle Red Bull Racing team. At the end of an intense three weeks of racing the ‘old’ Lawson appears to be coming to the fore and his results this weekend shows it.
Come qualifying, after three respectable practice sessions, Lawson was faster than his teammate Isack Hadjar, just missing out on Q3 and starting 12th on the grid.
Hadjar was to finish in the points in tenth place and got the better start coming out of the first Turn 1 quagmire ahead. His race strategy, starting on medium compound tyres and changing late in the race to hards, was the opposite to Lawsons. Neither was necessarily wrong.
The important thing is that we saw a more relaxed and happier Liam Lawson. He must now go into the two-week gap before the Miami Grand Prix with more self-confidence.
His team lies eighth overall on the constructors table with eight-points. They were clearly faster over the weekend than both sixth-placed MoneyGram Haas F1 Team (20-points) and seventh-placed Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team (10-points).
“This weekend has been the most comfortable I’ve felt in the car,” he commented. “We’re doing all the right things and it all needs to come together now to get some points.” I can’t argue with that one.
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