“We didn’t have the race pace” - Liam Lawson explains what went wrong in the starting of Singapore GP before scoring his first F1 points

Liam Lawson believes his starting performance needs improvement despite finishing in the points at the 2023 Singapore GP. Speaking to media including Sportskeeda after the race, the New Zealander felt that Alpha Tauri maximised the most out of their upgrades and package available.

Replacing an injured Daniel Ricciardo in the AlphaTauri, Liam Lawson managed bringing the car across the finish line in the points. However, all didn’t quite go well amidst a long thrilling race. George Russell’s crash eventually promoted the New Zealander into the points but strategy and a difficult start had dropped him places earlier.

Asked by Sportskeeda what were the pitfalls of the race in terms of car performance, Liam Lawson said:

“For me the start I need to get on top of because this is now two weekends in a row where I have botched the start basically and lost a couple of positions. It’s just making our life more difficult, so that’s the really the biggest loss of the race and thats on my part. For the rest, we extracted everything out of the car so we didn’t quite have the race pace to be honest. We kind of felt going in the race it was going to be a little bit difficult. We felt this on Friday as well, but we tried to correct it as much as we could. So I think we maximised it.”

Asked if the upgrades are positive news for the race ahead in Japan, he replied:

“I think it has the potential for sure. The longer we go with it as well, we figure out ways to extract the most out of it. Obviously its new this weekend, so we haven’t figured out everything to maximise it, the longer we go, the more learning I think we do with it.”

Describing the starting performance from the three weekends he has driven in F1, Liam Lawson felt he needed to improve on it. The AlphaTauri rookie's starting performance has cost them places in the last few weekends. On the performance side, the AT04 was heavily upgraded at the Singapore weekend, but the New Zealander felt they maximised the most of what they could during the race.

Despite qualifying ahead of all three Red Bull drivers, he believes they were quite confident of their race pace compared to the cars around them. His teammate Yuki Tsunoda crashed out after being pushed wide by Sergio Perez at the start of the race itself. He remained the sole AlphaTauri and managed scoring two points for the team. In terms of upgrades, Liam Lawson felt that they have the potential for the race ahead in Suzuka. The 22-year-old believes that there is definitely more performance to be extracted from them as the calendar progresses.

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Liam Lawson believes George Russell crashing out was a bonus for AlphaTauri

Prior to the virtual safety car, Liam Lawson felt that a points finish was a realistic target and reachable outcome. The New Zealander believes that before the Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen surged through the grid after their second pitstop, he could see a points finish. However, the Red Bull duo making it back into the points demoted the driver to 12th place until a spat between Alex Albon and Sergio Perez gave him another opportunity. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon’s stoppage promoted him to tenth and George Russell crashing out was a further bonus.

Asked by which point in the race he could anticipate a points finish, Liam Lawson replied:

“I think when maybe 20 laps to go, before Max and the Red Bulls were coming back. At that point I thought we had a chance, then I felt like it was slipping away again and I guess when Checo and Albon had their fight, and when Albon went back. That was when I felt a bit more that at that point we could at least go P10. And obviously it was then a bonus, not a bonus to see somebody to crash out for George, but for us obviously it means we can get an extra point.”

Asked about the physical challenges of racing at the Singapore circuit, he said:

“It was tough, there’s places that were extremely tough on the body especially if you’re fighting the car a lot. That makes it that extra bit difficult but yeah happy to survive the race.”

After three weekends in the AlphaTauri car, Liam Lawson has had strong performances to guarantee himself a full time F1 drive in the future. The temporary replacement has not yet been confirmed for the next race in Suzuka but he has definitely made his case by scoring 2 out of the 5 points scored by the team so far. The Faenza based team are currently at the bottom of the table in the constructors championship and are looking forward to moving ahead prior to Abu Dhabi.