Lawson seeks perfect formula
The teenaged Kiwi Formula 2 sensation is happy to win but is driven by a desire to keep improving.
The only thing that matches Liam Lawson’s need for speed is his pursuit of perfection. So despite winning his Formula Two debut in Bahrain and finishing third in the feature race to be second overall in the championship standings, Lawson has been wasting no time working on the improvements that need to be made for round two, on the famous Monte Carlo circuit in Monaco, next month.
Racing against 24 other young drivers from around the world who all share the same hopes and dreams as he does of climbing one more rung of the motorsport ladder to the pinnacle that is Formula One, Lawson is in a F2 championship chock full of talent.
‘‘It’s an ultra-competitive championship this year,’’ Lawson tells Stuff. ‘‘Especially with F2 because it’s right before F1 so everybody is trying to prove themselves to get to F1.’’
For the most part, F2 runs alongside F1 weekends, allowing drivers to get an experience of the big time and rub shoulders with the elite of the sport but Covid-19 protocols have made that much more limited so far in 2021.
It’s a results-based business and despite only being 19 and a ‘veteran’ of one F2 round, Lawson’s rapid rise through the motorsport ranks has taught him the cliche of only being as good as your last race is the absolute truth.
‘‘It wasn’t perfect,’’ were the three words Lawson used to sum up his first weekend in F2 with his Hitech GP team.
For the Red Bull Academy driver, it’s not a negative mindset or a glass half-empty approach – it’s simply the way to improve.
‘‘It was an absolutely awesome weekend and to have a race win was fantastic and it’s something I’ll remember for a while.
‘‘But a lot of people look at it as an amazing weekend and sort of forget about that bad stuff which is fine and understandable, but for me it wasn’t perfect. The stuff that we didn’t do right we need to capitalise on for the rest of the year if we want to do well in this championship,’’ Lawson said.
He was referring to the second race where he failed to finish after being caught up in an incident that wasn’t his fault, and his earlier struggles in qualifying at the start of the weekend.
‘‘We can’t afford to have these incidents as we did in race two as much as race one and race three were really, really good, there was a lot of points lost from the second race.
‘‘I’m fully over the fact that it’s happened already but it’s just knowing now what to do in the future to prevent things like that, that’s the learning point from it.’’
His goal is to win the championship, but it’s not something he thinks about a lot.
‘‘Obviously it’s about what you achieve on the weekends and trying to score as many points each weekend is the way to do that.’’
Lawson, who credits moving overseas at 16 for his maturity and knowledge for someone so young, didn’t waste any time toasting his own success in Bahrain.
Just hours after his third placing in the feature race and the opening round of the Formula One season that followed his own race, Lawson was on an overnight flight to Frankfurt before driving across to Belgium for testing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, a German Touring Car series he will contest later in the year.
Because of that travel, Lawson is now confined to his Milton Keynes apartment in south central England for 10 days instead of the normal five-day Covid-19 isolation period on return from an F2 weekend.
During racing periods, Lawson is tested for Covid-19 every five days. ‘‘That’s a lot of Covid tests. I don’t enjoy them.’’
But he understands that is part of what keeps racing going during the pandemic. That means he is unable to attend his nearby team base or Red Bull Racing HQ and a full debrief from Bahrain will be conducted via Zoom.
Outside the isolation period, Lawson can attend both his work venues and complete essential service requirements such as supermarket shopping but that’s about it.
The positive is he has time to get his firstever apartment and living by himself situation sorted, and he has just taken possession of a new racing simulator.
As part of Lawson’s quest to become the best driver he can possibly be, there is so much learning involved that is a step up from last year’s Formula 3 campaign that netted three wins and six podiums for his Hitech GP team.
Despite the pressure on his young shoulders intensifying on the back of his round one success, Lawson knows he will be better in Monaco. He is acutely aware he will need to be to run at the front of the pack against the best young driving talent in the world.
‘‘A lot of people look at it as an amazing weekend and sort of forget about that bad stuff which is fine and understandable, but for me it wasn’t perfect.’’ Liam Lawson, left