Horner defends Lawson after he was “too slow” in Melbourne F1 practice

Liam Lawson’s maiden grand prix weekend with Purple Bull received off to a shaky begin as he closed out Friday’s second follow session seventeenth quickest of the 19 drivers who took half – and over half a second slower than team-mate Max Verstappen on the identical smooth tyre compound.

“Snug, simply too sluggish,” stated Lawson to Sky Sports activities F1. “We clearly have quite a lot of work to do in a single day.”

In an FP1 session interrupted by Oliver Bearman crashing his Haas, Lawson was sixteenth quickest whereas Verstappen was fifth, over seven tenths of a second sooner. Each Purple Bull drivers struggled with an absence of grip fairly than steadiness because the RB21, regardless of a considerable improve together with a brand new ground, couldn’t ‘change on’ all 4 tyres, notably within the first and closing sectors.

Purple Bull workforce principal Christian Horner was fast to level out that Lawson lacks particular observe expertise, since his time in F2 pre-dated that championship’s arrival on the Australian GP help programme in 2023. In distinction, Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar – who raced right here in F2 in ’23 and ’24 – was sixth quickest in FP2 and simply two tenths off team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.

“Liam, it’s an enormous step up,” Horner instructed Sky Sports activities F1. “Being Max’s team-mate might be the hardest job in System 1. However he’s received the psychological aptitude and power of character to cope with that.

“He’s not been right here earlier than, I believe he’s the one driver on the grid that hasn’t performed some laps round this circuit. However he’s discovering his ft and giving some excellent suggestions, he’s settling in properly. We’ll see over the subsequent few races.”

Maybe of most concern to Lawson and Purple Bull is that the explanations for his efficiency deficit aren’t instantly apparent – plus the hole would in all probability have been bigger if Verstappen had managed to get a transparent lap throughout his qualifying simulations.

“I believe if we knew that we’d know how one can repair it as properly,” stated Lawson.

“The steadiness wasn’t fully out,” added Verstappen. “No huge or main issues, simply by some means the grip wasn’t coming alive.

“Which means we’re not likely up there in the meanwhile.”

Images from Australian GP – Free Observe