Liam Lawson has never had one teammate for a particularly long time in his Formula 1 career, but in Arvid Lindblad, he seems to have found a perfect foil.
The Kiwi was paired with the British youngster this season at Racing Bulls, having graduated from Formula 2 and replaced Isack Hadjar, who moved to Red Bull.
Between them, they have amassed 114 points for the Faenza-based squad, placing them as favourites to take the unofficial crown as ‘best of the midfield’.
Lindblad has performed admirably for a driver so young, fulfilling the trust placed in him by the Red Bull hierarchy, with Lawson setting some benchmark performances.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Motorsport Week, Lawson offered his theory as to why he and Lindblad, and the team as a result, have scored consistently across the campaign.
“I feel like we also have very similar feedback and feelings with the car, and, yeah, I feel like that’s really important for a team,” he said. “There’s nothing worse than when engineers are listening to drivers give opposite feedback when they’re running the same car, so I feel like for us we’ve had very similar sort of feelings.
“That’s, I would say, helped, a lot, and we get on well away from track as well. It’s been fun.
“Obviously, for him, it’s his first year, so seeing him see stuff for the first time is quite cool, honestly, but, yeah, it’s been enjoyable.”
Racing Bulls social team ensuring success off the track
One thing that Racing Bulls can also be commended for by many fans is its approach to social media content.
Both Lawson and Lindblad – nicknamed ‘Lawblad’ by the team – have been deployed into a variety of hilarious situations or pranked by its socials team behind the camera.
This has certainly raised the profile of the team and the drivers, reaching a younger generation of fans who are able to see some personality outside the car and the seriousness of F1’s media circus.
And Lawson believes that its content is perfectly judged to be a comic relief from the cut-and-thrust world of F1, without distracting them when it’s time to get serious behind the wheel.
“I would say [that] I feel like the team do a very good job of never really taking it too far or going over the edge with it,” he explained. “I feel like there’s always the understanding that the most important thing we do is driving these cars, so it never takes priority.
“It never disadvantages anything we do in a performance side, and as well, I feel like they are very good at the concepts they come up with.
“No offence to the other teams, but I feel like we obviously do it the best, I’d agree.and so I feel like for us it makes it enjoyable! Because they are normally quite fun things, it’s not something that is a really awkward, difficult thing to do.
“So, yeah, I hope they don’t read that! But it’s, yeah, it’s something that I feel like we’ve done a good job of.”
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