Liam Lawson left the Miami Grand Prix of Formula 1 frustrated, after a complicated weekend for Racing Bulls. The New Zealand driver admitted that he spent the first laps of the race just trying to ‘survive’ while dealing with balance issues in the car.
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After starting from 11th position on the grid, Lawson believed he could fight for points in the race held at the Miami circuit. However, besides the lack of performance, the driver ended up retiring after a mechanical problem that also involved Pierre Gasly in an accident.
The Racing Bulls driver’s race started off hectic already on the first lap. Lawson was involved in a battle with Max Verstappen, when the Red Bull Racing driver forced his rival off the track, although the New Zealander was instructed to give the position back shortly after.
The retirement happened on the sixth lap of the race. At the moment Gasly was making an overtaking maneuver at turn 17, the Racing Bulls car suffered a gearbox failure, causing Lawson to hit the Frenchman’s car.
With the impact, Gasly even flipped before stopping next to the safety barrier. The accident prematurely ended Lawson’s race and completed a weekend without points for the team.
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Commenting on the race, the New Zealander stated that Racing Bulls simply did not have enough speed in Miami: “I was just trying to survive on the first lap, and we weren’t fast enough,” Lawson said.
“We didn’t have speed overall in the first laps, and I already knew we had a very bad balance in the car and were trying to fix that. But it wasn’t enough, we simply weren’t fast this weekend,” he added.
Lawson acknowledged that the team will need to review the performance shown in Miami, although he sees positive aspects for the rest of the season: “We definitely need to analyze all this. We have many things coming throughout the year, which is positive, but all the other teams will have them too. We need to take bigger steps,” he concluded.
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