Lawson Survives the Zandvoort Gauntlet
Aug 25, 2023
New Zealand’s Liam Lawson has emerged from a gruelling Formula One debut unscathed and ready for a second start at Monza next weekend.
If Lawson wanted to test his F1 mettle, then the Dutch Grand Prix was a masters level exam; the Scuderia AlphaTauri driver experienced horrendous conditions, a pit lane penalty, a red flag and to top it off he diced with and passed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
After all that, he finished 13th after starting from last, as the top AlphaTauri driver, and achieved his primary goal of going the distance, "The aim was to do all 72 laps today," said Lawson at the finish. "When I first got on the grid and it started raining, it wasn't the best feeling. After that, we had no choice but to make the pitstop but unfortunately we got a penalty and lost a huge amount of time during it."
As the North Sea sent shower after shower over the sand-dune circuit, Lawson kept his cool, despite being given a ten-second penalty after being caught in a pit-lane traffic jam behind team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, at the first stop “ "I think once we got clear air during the second half of the race and then driving on the intermediate tyres at the end, my pace wasn't so bad. There's still some work to do, but I'm happy to have gotten through the race, experiencing different conditions and scenarios, to be able to take them forward."
Lawson was only called up to race after Daniel Ricciardo crashed in the second practice, breaking his hand. This means the kiwi only had one practice session before making his race debut. The torrid conditions only adding to the immense challenge of making Formula One debut. Lawson though, was up to the test, crossing the line in 14th, before being upgraded to 13th when a five-second time penalty was added to Tsunoda's time for a race incident and the Kiwi driver moved up to 13th while Tsunoda fell back to 16th.
Lawson impressed AlphaTauri's Head of Vehicle Performance, Guillaume Dezoteux, who was complimentary of his performances over the weekend in the most trying conditions.
"As for Liam, he did a very good job today, learning about the car and adapting to the conditions, which were constantly evolving," he said. "He made no mistakes and was able to build up the pace on dry tyres, which he was driving on for the first time in our car. Overall it was a difficult weekend."
It all points to the super-sub having done enough to earn a second F1 start at next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
