Liam Lawson has said he is happy with his performance at the Dutch GP after he made a surprise F1 debut with AlphaTauri following an injury to Daniel Ricciardo.
The New Zealander has long been touted as a potential candidate for one of the Red Bull seats on the grid, and he got his first chance to impress at the top level after Ricciardo broke his hand in practice at Zandvoort.
Lawson will likely also deputise at the next race at the Italian GP given Ricciardo requires surgey, and he said that he felt more comfortable during the race than in qualifying despite the treacherous wet conditions and a number of restarts.
Despite starting from last on the grid, he worked his way up to finish in 13th and had several good battles on his way through the pack.
“Little bit sketchy conditions obviously, all over the place,” Lawson told the media, including Total-Motorsport.com after the race.
“Rolling up to the grid it started raining. Definitely wasn’t the best feeling. But throughout the race, I mean, I was obviously learning a huge amounts of the first part was a bit wasn’t wasn’t the best.
“We lost a lot of time in the pit stop, and then the penalty. So that’s all part of it, obviously. But the second half, I think I started to get a bit of feeling soft and the clean air and then on the inters as well. I felt a lot more comfortable than yesterday, that’s for sure.”
Reasonably satisfied
As on any debut, Lawson said that there were things he could do differently and would like to improve on, but overall he remained happy with how he had managed.
“You always look back and reflect on this and there’s definitely things I would have liked to do better but I think yeah, I’m reasonably satisfied,” Lawson concluded.
