Liam Lawson has revealed how a front-suspension change on the Racing Bulls, akin to one employed at McLaren, became crucial to him securing his Formula 1 future.
Lawson’s demotion from the main Red Bull team, just two races into the 2025 campaign, would have come as a devastating blow to the 23-year-old’s confidence.
With a DNF and a 12th-placed finish in Australia and China, respectively, Lawson seemingly carried forward that form with the Faenza-based squad into the next rounds.
Having scored only four points across the next eight races, a breakthrough came for the New Zealander at the Red Bull Ring.
Lawson was not entirely happy with the feedback, or the lack thereof, he was getting from the front-end of his VCARB 02 up until that point in the season.
That said, the team fitted a revised front suspension at Austria, having developed the same with the 23-year-old in the simulator, helping him to sixth place.
“Straight away from the first time I drove it, it was just night and day in terms of how much more of a natural feeling for me it was to drive,” Lawson told The Race.
With his results continuing to improve, Lawson showed enough promise to be retained at Racing Bulls heading into 2025 alongside rookie Arvid Lindblad.
“It was good to then just have a clean weekend. We’d had good sessions, good practice sessions, a couple of maybe good qualis,” he added.
“But to just have a clean weekend, to have practice go well, have a really good quali and then deliver in the race as well, it was something that I had not had all year. It just made a big difference.”
It turned out that Norris had worked on a similar solution with McLaren. The Briton had asked the team to alter the MCL39’s steering kingpin inclination (KPI). With the front wheels now sitting at a more conducive angle relative to the tyre contact patch, the pronounced self-centring effect on the straights allowed the duo of Norris and Lawson to get a better feel.
Lawson reveals the valuable F1 lesson 2025 has taught him
Lawson contends that he figured the solution to his front-grip troubles without being privy to what was happening behind the scenes at McLaren.
“I didn’t really know that others had done something similar, or that Lando had done something similar, to be honest, until afterwards,” he explained.
“I guess the best way to describe it is like when you start racing go-karts. I would basically get a new kart chassis, I’d sit in it, and we would adjust everything.
“You would slightly move the pedals to where you wanted them, maybe slightly offset them. You’d move your heel rest. You’d move your steering wheel, change the angle of that. You’d run different seat angles, different seats. You’d make things that were comfortable.
“Then you get in an F1 car, which is so advanced, and, quite often, you just run what is the standard. And that was the natural thing to do, because I think you just expect that everything’s going to be obviously perfect.”
Lawson also shed light on how his early-season struggles in adapting to the RB21 and how he managed to unlock the pace with Racing Bulls have taught him a valuable lesson about F1.
“At the end of the day, it’s not perfect for you,” examined the 23-year-old.
“And I think that’s something that this year I learned a lot more of. That we can actually change a couple of things that might make it more comfortable for me and doesn’t necessarily work for most other drivers.”
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