Miami, Florida – The 2025 season of Formula 1 did not start as Liam Lawson imagined.
Useed by Red Bull to replace Sergio Pérez with Max Verstappen, Lawson begged the year driving for the senior team with the hope of helping Red Bull to return to the top of the classification of the Construction Championship. But after the fight to open the year, Red Bull decided to change him Yuki Tsunoda, return Lawson to the seat that is a hero last year in Visa Cash APP Racing Bulls.
Even so, the young driver has an eye on fighting until the front of the F1 grid.
SB nation Trapped with Lawson before this weekend in Miami Grand Prix, chatting with the VCarb driver about the beginning of this season, the team association with exxonmobil and life as a pilot of the F1.
Our discussion begged with the beginning of the season and Lawson’s return to VCarb. Although there are no driver chickens to face what Lawson has Dalt at the beginning of the year, the driver accredited the VCarb team for helping his return to be as easy as possible.
“It is a leg as soft and as I would say that I could have one leg,” Lawson said about VCarb’s movement.
“It is never easy among the races in a season to make a team change, so, I suppose, fortunately for me, I have had experience in the past of arriving in mid -season and trying to adapt quickly.
“But it’s always difficult.”
Lawson also made it clear that driving for VCarb before helped relieve the transition.
“So I would say that it was not the easiest, but I think the team did a very good job in doing it as soft as possible.
“And obviously, it was a new team, it was a team with which I have worked a lot in the past.”
Something else has helped that transition? The consistency of VCARB02. Although Red Bull’s Challenger has proven to be a bit difficult to drive this season, VCarbs’s 2025 car has been a constant platform for its drivers.
Even so, moving from one car to another requires a period of adjustment, which is part of life in F1.
“I would say that it is quite good at this time,” Lawson began when asked about his comfort with VCARB02. “It is likely to be a weekend or two to have a full time again, lead different to Red Bull.
“I would say that, as drivers, we are, regardless of the car we handle, we are there to adapt and drive that car to the best that can be driven,” Lawson continued. “It is something that we all have to learn and adapt and that it takes a different amount of time depending on how that car drives, but I would say that now I feel in a good place.”
Something more that has helped Lawson and VCarb this year is their association with Exxonmobil. In addition to being the fuel and lubricant partner of the equipment, the energy company has a monitoring laboratory, which analyzes fuel and lubricant samples and then informs the data to the equipment, detecting any motor or detection indication.
This is part of the large amount of information and data available for equipment and drivers during a race weekend, and to listen to Lawson to tell the story, each part of data is important when the field is so tight.
“It is all small things that make a difference in formula one, especially in the last year of a regulation change in which the teams at this time find to find small things and, and the difference between, one or two make you diffusions.
“Then, we are obviously trying to find that small details are what we can, and that association is helping us do that.”
Last year at the United States Grand Prix I was lucky enough to be in the qualification of the duration of the Alpine garage, with an onset on to be able to listen to the radio talk of the team. I was instantly surprised by the amount of information that drivers received through the return, which is that I asked me how I could keep the car where I needed to be the entire talk.
I asked Lawson how he and the rest of the drivers can balance what they are listening, with what they are doing.
“I would say that it is definitely much more in formula one than any other category,” Begen Lawson.
“Then, when you enter Formula one, it is the greatest safe adjustment is to deal with communication, and I suppose that the amount of activity you are doing in the car.”
Therefore, it helps the pilots who began to run at an early age, so driving becomes almost “subconscious” in Lawson’s words.
“But I suppose that it is also for that reason we spend, from six or seven years, we are driving karts and racing cars and anyway, the conduction part itself is quite subconscious.
“You are not really thinking about it.
“It’s all you’re thinking,” Lawson continued. “You are thinking of communicating with the team and making sure that cars in the best window and time management, and all these other things.
“So, there is a lot of communication, but I would say that people would be surprised by how much of the driving is really, you are not really thinking about that.”
It is very natural. “
That is also one of Lawson’s most difficult parts.
Every time I am lucky to talk to a driver, I ask them what is the most difficult aspect of his work. Treating with that communication is one of the aspects that Lawson pointed out.
“I would say that in the car is that communication,” Lawson begged.
“That is the greatest difference between any other category is the information that is absorbing in the car and how active behind the steering wheel to try to adjust things.
“[There are] Hundreds and hundreds of things that we can adjust in the steering wheel in a race, or in a session or in a qualification session, therefore, yes, trying to do all those things as accurate as possible. “
Out of the car? The most difficult part of Lawson’s work is the trip. Formula 1 takes drivers to 24 different race weekends, and the trip can reach it if it is not taken care of.
“Traveling is quite difficult sometimes,” Lawson described. “You can get a lot with how much you travel and how much jet faces, and things like that.
“Then, he is trying to keep his health, to be honest, make a big difference.”
Our conversation concluded this weekend and the Miami Grand Prix. Although this is Lawson’s third career in F1, this will be his first career in Miami.
The VCarb driver pointed out the “atmosphere” in Miami is one of the reasons for his emotion.
“It is difficult to have an expectation the weekend and on the track. I am looking forward to driving the track. It looks quite great.”
As for what Lawson hopes to achieve, the closely competitive field this year makes Lawson doubt any prediction.
“But I would say that in a result, it is very difficult to say.
“Formula one is obviously very, very close at this time and, to be honest, if you look at last year the results of this year, we often enter a weekend thinking: ‘Ok, this track worked for us last year, and does not work for us.
“Then, it is very difficult to say.
“But it looks like a great clue. It’s a great place, a very great atmosphere. And yes, for me, it is exciting to run for the first time here.”
Lawson and the rest of the network will begin to compete on Friday, since this weekend includes a Sprint F1 race. The drivers will have only an hour of practice to acclimatize before the F1 Sprint rating.
We will see how fast Lawson adapts.
SB nation It will be on the floor for the entire Miami Grand Prix, so check our transmission of the story throughout the week to completely charge!