Lawson hails ‘extremely valuable’ work despite RB21 gremlins

Red Bull’s Liam Lawson has cast a positive light on his pre-season testing experience with the team, despite a final day in Bahrain hampered by what he called “teething gremlins.”

The young New Zealander, who stepped up from Red Bull’s sister team, Racing Bulls, to replace Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen’s teammate, completed on Thursday his allocated sessions aboard the RB21 challenger.

With only three days of testing available, Lawson’s stints included a morning session on Wednesday and back-to-back runs on Thursday, totaling 91 laps on Day 2 with a best time of 1m 30.252s, placing him seventh on the timesheets.

Lawson’s transition to Red Bull has been marked by a steep learning curve, but his comments reflect a driver embracing the process.

“I am getting more comfortable in the car,” he said, signaling progress in adapting to his new machinery.

However, Lawson’s final day of running wasn’t without its hurdles as mechanical setbacks and unpredictable weather tested both driver and team.

Navigating Teething Gremlins and Tricky Conditions

Thursday’s sessions in Bahrain brought a mix of challenges, from car reliability issues to light showers that slickened the track.

“It has been a busy day overall. As part of testing, we were fighting a few teething gremlins with the car through the day. It’s all about just learning about the new car,” Lawson said.

“A few of our runs were cut short a little bit and we had to deal with the weather too, which wasn’t great timing for our run plan, as I imagine was the case for most of the pit lane.”

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Despite these setbacks, Lawson maintained a forward-looking perspective.

“All this work is extremely valuable going into Melbourne and we feel in a positive place,” he emphasized.

“This is all the most important stuff when it comes to pre-season.

“This will be the last time I drive the car before Melbourne, to get things right, and we are going to take [things away] from all of it to put together the best-balanced car for the first race.”

Technical Insights from Pierre Wache

Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache provided further context on Lawson’s testing program, outlining how the team adjusted to the day’s challenges.

“Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great, with some rain at the beginning of the day, so we decided to do a race simulation to get Liam up to speed with long runs and to check the car for general reliability across race distance,” Wache explained.

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The afternoon shifted focus to performance exploration, with Wache noting, “In the afternoon, our aim was to understand the car with the C3 [tyre] compound and the set-up options and to also explore the set-up of the car in general.”

However, the tricky conditions limited the team’s ability to fully assess the RB21.

“We had wanted to get a total insight into the car today, and understand its full direction, but it was also difficult to judge the performance of the car in these conditions and get a lot of the temperature on the tyres,” Wache admitted.

“But Liam responded well today and his feedback was very close to Max’s,” Wache said. “We have good understandings to take into the final day of testing now, with Max at the wheel.”

With Verstappen set to take the wheel for the final day of testing, Red Bull appears poised to refine the RB21 further, armed with the insights Lawson has helped uncover.

For the Kiwi, the focus remains clear: turning pre-season lessons into a competitive edge when the lights go out in Melbourne.

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