Liam Lawson admitted to being surprised by Alpine’s progress during the Formula 1 weekend in Miami. The Racing Bulls driver highlighted the performance difference after the five-week break in the season.
Read more F1: Williams sees car progress in Miami qualifying: «Positive step»
The growth of the French team was directly reflected on the track, with Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto securing a place in Q3. This put Alpine in a prominent position in the midfield pack.
Lawson, on the other hand, faced difficulties and only managed 12th position on the starting grid for Sunday’s race. The New Zealander explained that a brake problem compromised his performance in the qualifying session: “The brake problem appeared in qualifying, we didn’t have it before. Unfortunately, it caught us already on the first lap,” he said.
Read more F1: McLaren dominates Sprint, but loses strength in qualifying session
Despite the limitation, he believes he extracted the maximum possible from the car: “Other than that, the car was okay and I think we qualified where we really are. We did the maximum with what we had today,” he added. Still, he drew attention to the difference compared to Alpine, which he considers significant.
The driver also admitted that the rival team’s evolution caught him off guard: “Definitely surprised. They took a big step forward this weekend,” he said. Lawson also highlighted that the current Formula 1 scenario should continue with constant evolutions among the teams, emphasizing that learning from updates will be crucial throughout the season.
Read more F1: Verstappen finds tires strange, but secures front row
