Horner defends “too slow” Lawson after tough Australian GP practice

Liam Lawson’s maiden grand prix weekend with Purple Bull bought off to a shaky begin as he closed out Friday’s second apply session seventeenth quickest and over half a second slower than team-mate Max Verstappen on the identical mushy tyre compound.

“Snug, simply too gradual,” stated Lawson to Sky Sports activities F1. “We clearly have loads 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 quicker. Each Purple Bull drivers struggled with a scarcity of grip quite than steadiness because the RB21, regardless of a considerable improve together with a brand new ground, couldn’t ‘swap on’ all 4 tyres, notably within the first and ultimate sectors.

Purple Bull group 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 Components 1. However he’s bought the psychological aptitude and power of character to take care of that.

“He’s not been right here earlier than, I feel he’s the one driver on the grid that hasn’t achieved some laps round this circuit. However he’s discovering his ft and giving some superb suggestions, he’s settling in properly. We’ll see over the following 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 most likely have been bigger if Verstappen had managed to get a transparent lap throughout his qualifying simulations.

“I feel if we knew that we’d know methods to repair it as effectively,” stated Lawson.

“The steadiness wasn’t utterly out,” added Verstappen. “No huge or main issues, simply in some way the grip wasn’t coming alive.

“Meaning we’re not likely up there for the time being.”