It’s all too easy to go from hero to zero in Formula 1 when you’re fighting to hold on to your seat, and alas that’s exactly what happened to Liam Lawson in Singapore.
In the paddock it’s taken for granted that his mercurial Racing Bulls team mate Isack Hadjar will graduate to the senior Red Bull Racing team in 2026.
That would leave the Kiwi fighting with Yuki Tsunoda for a VCARB drive, given that Arvid Lindblad is on standby and has a lot of support, despite some in the camp suggesting that he’s not ready to move up to F1 just yet.
However with Alex Dunne now also waiting in the wings pending a super licence it could be that neither Tsunoda nor Lawson is retained by Helmut Marko and co.
At the previous race in Baku Lawson did a great job to qualify third and then hang on to fifth place in the race, having lost out to the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
He coped well the pressure of having a train of cars lined up behind, headed by none other Tsunoda.
Alas in Singapore much of the good work was undone when he crashed heavily in Friday practice, and then did the same on Saturday in FP3. He thus went into qualifying with a repaired car and limited preparation.
He had to settle for 14th, before gaining two places on the grid from the disqualification of the two Williams drivers.
In the race itself he ran a marathon 49-lap stint hoping that a safety car or red flag might throw him a lifeline, but in the end nothing happened, and he fell back three places to finish in 15th.
After the flag he was at a loss to explain how he had ended up going backwards, while Carlos Sainz used a similar strategy to advance from P18 to P10.
“I think the only question mark is I need to have a look why, but I have no idea how we came out behind that big train of cars, and Carlos managed to come out in front of them,” he said when I asked about his race.
“Because we were actually in front of him before the stops. So frustrating obviously, but something we’ll look into.”
To his credit he took full responsibility for making his life difficult with the two crashes.
“It’s something that was my doing,” he said. “Obviously yesterday [FP3] was very costly before qualifying, to miss all the new tyre running, to have a car that was obviously just put back together in time.
“The team did an amazing job to put the car back together. But obviously when you go out for qualifying, it’s not going to be completely perfect. And I’m trying to drive two, three seconds quicker than what I’ve been driving before I shunted.
“So obviously a big, big learning curve for me, something that I take responsibility for. But in the race, the car was strong. We struggled a little bit towards the end of that long stint on tyres, especially compared to the Williams but yes, still positives to take forward.”
The Racing Bulls has been competitive at every type of track in recent months, so Lawson has a chance to make amends in Austin.
A year ago he took over Daniel Ricciardo’s seat there, and impressed with his pace, especially in Q1. He finished the main race in ninth place.
“It’s been good this weekend,” he said of the car’s current form. I’m sure we should have a good package in Austin.
“It’s now full circle back to back to where it started last year. Obviously it’s a track I enjoy. It’s a track we had a good race at last year, so hopefully we have a quick car this year.”
Earlier in the Singapore weekend he reflected on what he has to do in order to hang on to his seat.
“It’s nothing in particular other than just scoring points, having good races,” he said. “I think the main thing is for us scoring points, we’re fighting for P6 in the constructors’, and from a team focus that’s what we’re very focussed on.
“And if we achieve that, naturally, that means that I’ve probably done my job. And from a wider perspective, that’s probably the goal for me. It’s just every time I get in the car, trying to get the most out of it, and score the most amount of points I can.”
Adam Cooper F1 