Louson: My attitude hasn't changed since the beginning of the year.

      Liam Lawson has experienced a lot in his brief Formula 1 career: initially he temporarily replaced Daniel Ricciardo, then took his place at Racing Bulls, afterward became a teammate of Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing, but didn’t stay there long before being returned to the Faenza team.

      In an interview with the official championship website, the 23-year-old New Zealand driver talked about his past, present, and shared his views on the future. The conversation took place during the recent Goodwood Speed Festival, where Liam was piloting not only a Formula 1 car.

      “It's been a few very intense months, with five race weekends in six weeks. Now there's time to reflect on everything, which is also important,” Liam said. “I think, in terms of results, we've looked our best lately. We have a fast car, and I probably also feel I've reached a level I didn't quite reach before.

      Of course, I have to admit, I haven't scored many points. Things went great in Austria, but that's not enough (Liam finished 6th at the Red Bull Ring). Performing like that as often as possible is what we need. I suppose we have some difficulties with result consistency.

      Naturally, at the start of the season there were big changes—changing teams—and not much time for proper adaptation, since the races happened weekly, and I was trying to perform at the needed level.

      A lot was happening. Honestly, I still haven't fully processed it all... I believe the summer break is ahead, and everyone will have at least a week to disconnect from this. I'm glad we now have a brief pause, but I’m already thinking about the upcoming races in Belgium and Hungary, because I need to try to have a couple of good races before the holiday...”

      Reflecting on the start of the season, Liam emphasizes that, on the one hand, he was upset that he wasn’t given more time to adapt to the RB21 car, but on the other hand, despite the forced return to Red Bull's "junior team," he never lost faith in his abilities.

      “I need to clarify one point: after the first two races, when I was moving from one team to another, then headed to Japan, nothing changed psychologically for me,” he stated. “There was a lot of talk about my confidence wavering and all that, but that’s not true at all. I think from the beginning of the year, my mindset hasn't changed.

      I believe that the first two races on tracks I’d never raced on before weren’t enough for me to gain full confidence behind the wheel. Maybe it takes at least six months, and if after that I remained at the same level and results didn’t improve, then my confidence might have been shaken.

      I fully understood that those results weren’t good enough, but I was simply focused on improving, fixing mistakes, and learning. My mindset was the same as at my Formula 1 debut…

      I needed more time, but it wasn’t given. I hardly ever talked about it because I mostly tried not to think about what happened then and just focused on driving. Still, I know there were many conversations about this, about how I was feeling…

      Now we're seeing a gradual improvement in results, without any major breakthroughs. But even during the first series of three consecutive races (which Liam competed in for Racing Bulls, i.e., in Japan, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia), the pace was decent, though not outstanding. But since then, we’ve been showing a fairly normal rhythm…

      Overall, Formula 1 is currently highly competitive, results are very close, so we and the team have to work under pressure, and mainly it’s crucial to prepare the cars for races as well as possible.

      If you arrive at a track and the car’s setup leaves a lot to be desired, while you try to fix it, others are gaining time. With such close results, we’re just trying to gain at least half a tenth on certain parts of the lap. Throughout the lap, up to the last two corners, you push yourself trying to make it into the second qualifying session, but a small mistake can knock you out of the fight.

      But I think that recently, our car has been capable of good pace, and everything is going fine in that regard; we just need to keep striving to continue on an upward trajectory…

      Quite often, we fight for points in the final tenth, and sometimes it works out well, as it did in Austria. But consistently achieving such results is very difficult…

      I believe when there are so many races, after each race weekend—especially when three are consecutive—you have only a day to process what just happened, then you need to immediately focus on the next race.

      I don’t know if it’s good for health or not, but you’re constantly thinking only about Formula 1, speed, and results. Now, mid-July, and the fact that 12 races are already behind us seems hard to grasp. But they just flew by very quickly.

      When there are short breaks, summer holidays, or season ends, and you disconnect from it all, those moments feel quite strange to me. After a while, you start worrying that you’re not thinking about work, and it all ends up with you starting to think about it again!”