Like most of you I was so sure that I was going to wake up on Monday morning, and – once I’d turned the computer on, clicked the Talk Motorsport icon, then quickly skim-read what would I was sure have been the lead story just to confirm the fact – find out that Liam Lawson had been crowned Germany’s new DTM champion, that I completely forgot about a couple of key factors whenever a title is going down to the wire; namely who ‘the locals want to win’ and ‘how badly do they want ‘their guy’’(as opposed to ‘our guy’ Liam) to win.
That Liam is the best driver in the DTM this year is beyond question. And that – ultimately – will be the value of doing the series for the still just 19-year-old from Pukekohe.
You simply don’t take a previously uncompetitive GT3 car like Ferraris’ 488 and turn it into a bona fide pole getter and race winner without some hyper-sensitivity in your hands, bottom, and brain. Something Liam himself confirmed (without really realising it as well) in one of the episodes of the ‘Liam and Alex (Albon) do the DTM’ show that Red Bull has been producing and putting up on YouTube this year.
Both drivers made mention of how hard it was to deal with (IMHO) the classic handling characteristics of a mid-engine sports car – namely turn- in understeer then power-on turn exit oversteer.
Yet – when it was his turn to speak – Liam admitted candidly – that he had yet to actually spin his car…….
Initially Alex didn’t believe him, but Liam trawled back through his memory banks, as Alex dug himself a deeper hole with lurid tales of when he first evaluated a 488, and the subject changed naturally to something else after Liam confirmed that he indeed couldn’t remember ‘ever’ spinning the 488, despite it being such a knife edge kind of car to drive.
With Alex required by his F1 team in Turkey this weekend Liam has fellow Kiwi Nick Cassidy as his teammate in the Red Bull-backed Ferrari team at the final DTM Round at the street-based Norisring circuit.
Cassidy appeared to do everything asked and expected of him as well, and it was truly gutting to see him also run wide and end up stationary behind his teammate, polesitter Liam Lawson, after fellow title prospect Kelvin van der Linde did a kamikaze dive down the inside into the first corner.
Justice – of a kind – was sweet when van der Linde ended up spinning his works Audi R8 to a halt after puncturing a tyre as he battled with a squadron of Mercedees-AMG GT3s.
Despite damage to the steering of his Red Bull Ferrari forcing Lawson to pit he was able to continue, albeit at a much-reduced pace. In theory he didn’t need to even do that, particularly after van der Linde had – again! – been penalised for the contact with Lawson – the latter still on track – literally – to win the 2021 title by seven points.
This, however, is Germany, home of the mighty Mercedes-AMG and the with local (Norisring) hero Max Gotz with a chance to not only win the race, but also the title – should his fellow Mercedes-AMG drivers Philip Ellis and Lucas Auer slow and let Gotz through and into the lead.
Which – naturally – they were asked to do by Mercedes-AMG team management and both – naturally – did so almost immediately, allowing the distinctive pink-based colours of Gotz’s BTW-backed car to get to the finish line first and – in doing so – leap-frog luckless Kiwi Liam Lawson for the top step of the series podium by…just three points.
The look on Liam’s face as he stood there on the podium said it all. He wasn’t happy, and you, me – in fact ask anyone how they would feel coming off the high of leading one of the world’s pre-eminent motor racing series up until – effectively – the second corner of the last race of the season only for things to start to unravel quickly from that point then facing the low that somehow, someone changed he script – and I’m sure that word liked ‘gutted,’ ‘shattered,’ and ‘left wondering why I do this,’ would pepper the resultant conversation.
Yet, yet, yet, what Liam had to say – and this in his own words, and immediately afterwards with the wounds still raw and deep was this.
“I’m” really disappointed for the whole team. They deserved this, they worked so hard this year. Every weekend they’ve given this absolute maximum and I really wanted to repay them this weekend with the title.”
Classy. And though I’d imagine the hurt, the disappointment and – yes – he sheer ‘unfairness’ of the last race at the last round of this year’s new look DTM, will stay with him for a very long time, for the rest of us fans, particularly those older and with a few more disappointments of their own ‘on the board’ will simply nod knowingly and think of the positives rather than the negatives.
Like how at the start of the year, the DTM Campaign for Red Bull in a Ferrari, was really only a bonus for Liam; something to keep him occupied between rounds of the FIA World Formula 2 championship. And here is how the first race of the weekend panned out…
Before January, this year – in fact – Liam had never driven, let alone raced a pukka GT3 car, so accepted an offer from Scott O’Donnell to drive his Audi R8 at Highlands.
Also, with a Red Bull-contracted teammate in Alexander Albon as his teammate you could argue that little was expected of him.
As those of us involved – even in an indirect way as I was – in Liam’s one-off return to karts and karting at KartSport Auckland’s annual City of Sails meeting at its Giltrap Group Raceway over the Auckland Anniversary long weekend at the end of January this year, learned pretty bloody damn quickly, you don’t offer Liam Lamson an opportunity to race ‘anything, anywhere’ without getting at least a 200% commitment back in return.
In not one, but two classes of kart that meant pole in all but the first session in the premier 125cc Max Light class before going unbeaten in both classes across the two days.
Had he returned from a season racing karts and that is something that perhaps – just perhaps, mind, that I might have expected. But having not raced kart seriously since he was 12-years-of-age I rated it as one of the most impressive performances by a racing driver I have ever personally seen – and because of it became a fan of the young bloke pretty much overnight.
So Liam, all I can say looking in from a long way off is this. Be disappointed. Be angry. But don’t let that disappointment and pissed-off-ed-ness fester or linger.
Rather, try and find a way to turn it into fuel to spray – or pour if you must – on your motivational fire.
Also, as you know already from season’s past…shit happens. And don’t think that just because it isn’t happening to you doesn’t mean it isn’t happening any longer, it just means it is happening to someone else!
Believe me, we – as fellow Kiwis who have followed your career with increasing interest since your first, confident move from karts to cars – feel your pain.
But for all the jingoistic* comments from fans here at home that have appeared on your Facebook page in the 24 hours since the start of the fateful final race none have mentioned two important things, one to do with the format of the grid itself, the other to do with the way you reacted when the ‘boot was on the other foot’ earning the NZ Grand Prix title in 2019 despite fellow young gun Marcus Armstrong beating you to the line.
I raise the Norisring grid layout first because it places the polesitter on the inside for what is nominally the first ‘corner’ (in reality nothing more than a high speed right hand kink for the DTM field after a rolling start) then on the outside for the (much more critical) wide-entry 90 degree left hand hairpin that is nominally the second turn on the ultra-fast converted street course.
Because of this all someone like second quickest qualifier Kelvin van der Linde has to do is hold station with the poleman off the start and down through the high-speed right hand kink, brake as late as you possibly can into the left hander and even if you cock the move up monumentally you can still either use the cars on your outside to lean on to keep your own momentum up and theirs’s down…or you can simply whistle down the inside like the total Muppet you are (Kelvin!) completely miss your usual braking point, clatter over the curb on the inside of the corner and bounce off whoever has the mis -fortune to be in the way (which would be you two Liam and Nick).
For this Kelvin earned a 5-second time penalty. And Liam effectively lost the 2021 DTM championship title.
These days of course, it’s OK (in other words it is no longer seen as a weakness) for a driver to admit to feelings….something that Liam is a master at. I can still remember him making the time after being awarded the 2019 NZGP title at Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon to seek out and (try at least) to console fellow young gun Marcus Armstrong after Armstrong had beaten Lawson to the line….only to have the race win – and NZGP title – denied him thanks to a time penalty for a clash of wheels between the pair early in the race.
Making the effort to commiserate with a fellow competitor in such circumstances is something Liam didn’t have to do. But he did. Now its someone else’s turn to try and raise Liam Lawson’s spirits….
If it was me?
I’d start by reciting a famous quote from US General George Patton;
“The test of success is not what you do when you are on top of things. (Oh no!) Success is how high you bounce (back) when you hit the bottom!”
+ Jingoism. (noun) Extreme chauvinism or nationalism.
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