Even having appeared to have turned a corner in his bid to stablise his 2025 Formula One campaign, Liam Lawson concedes he needs to be achieving more than the occasional points finishes.
With one race to go before the mid-season summer break, Lawson and his Racing Bulls team have arrived in Mogyoród for the Hungarian Grand Prix, fresh from the Kiwi’s third points finish of the year.
Those finishes have all come since the Monaco Grand Prix in late May, and have Lawson 14th in the drivers’ championship.
He sits ahead of not only Yuki Tsunoda - who replaced him at Red Bull just two races into this season - but two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, and four-time race winner Carlos Sainz.
The most recent of those came in Belgium last weekend, where Lawson took eighth place after arguably his most professional display, where he started ninth, before getting around his teammate Isack Hadjar and remaining untroubled for the 44-lap affair at Spa-Francorchamps.
Belgium came two races after Lawson’s career-best result of sixth in Austria, as the Kiwi made the most of a standout qualifying session, to finish as the highest-placed of Red Bull’s four affiliated cars.
Despite the success at Spa and overall upturn in fortunes, though, Lawson makes it clear that he still feels he has more to do, starting in Hungary.
“Austria was a more complete weekend,” he said. “Qualifying was maximised, the race was maximised. I don’t think we could have achieved too much more.
“[In] Spa, the car was quick, qualifying wasn’t perfect. Going into the race, we weren’t able to capitalise.
“It’s just been more consistent recently, but obviously there needs to be more. To have two good races in 12, it’s not enough.
“We need to be doing it every weekend, and that’s the target.”
Lawson is correct in his assertion that he needs to do more. In contrast, Hadjar sits 11th in the drivers’ championship, six points clear of his teammate, in the same machinery.
While Lawson has three points finishes, Hadjar has five, and has put himself in pole position for a Red Bull promotion if and when needed.
But given how much of Formula One revolves around recency bias, Lawson could just be timing his run to perfection. His results at the end of 2024, saw him promoted ahead of Tsunoda, even if Red Bull backed out of that arrangement two races later.
As to how Lawson continues his upward trajectory, though, it’s his efforts in qualifying that he feels needs the most work in the second half of the season.
“Everybody is very, very close,” he explained. “It means even on tracks that are easy to overtake, they’re still difficult.
“You don’t have a three, four, five tenth [of a second] pace advantage. You have a one or two tenth pace advantage.
“It’s just very, very hard to overtake. Qualifying is very, very important. It sets up your weekend.
“Where our weekends have fallen away, at least on my side, has been normally an average qualifying. Where our weekends have been strong has been when we qualify well.
“That’s probably the main target, extracting everything through practice and the weekend, making sure we have the car in the best place heading into qualifying, and for me getting everything out of it and doing a better job.”
Regardless, Lawson should be pleased with his progress since Monaco.
While he’s always maintained his confidence wasn’t affected by his sudden demotion from Red Bull’s senior ranks, Lawson’s results suggest having more time behind the wheel at Racing Bulls has been beneficial.
It’s hard to say whether the same improvements would have happened had he stayed at Red Bull, evidenced by Tsunoda’s poor displays next to world champion Max Verstappen.
However, it is something that Lawson himself will have to be content with potentially never knowing.
Racing Bulls, though, for now, seems the best place for Lawson to be. The Faenza-based outfit welcomed the Kiwi back with open arms, and have helped him on the road back to his best.
But asked about his overall reflections as to how his year has tracked, Lawson is looking forwards, not back.
“It’s been busy. It’s been a whirlwind, especially at the start of the year.
“It’s all [been] very unexpected. What was probably a rocky start has stablised, and we’re in a better place now.
“But the speed has been there [for] most of the year. It’s nice that we’re finally able to get a couple of good results. But, as I said, as a whole we need to be doing that more.
“Going forward into the second half of the year, we’ll try to replicate this more. Right now, with how close it is, it’s just the little things that make a big difference.
“[I’m] trying to extract everything each weekend.”
The Hungarian Grand Prix weekend begins with free practice on Friday night (NZ time).
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.