Liam Lawson, at Suzuka, opened up on the “extremely” difficult challenge of re-wiring the brain to perform a good qualifying lap in F1 2026.
Lawson spoke of “more processing, and more rules to follow” in qualifying this year, with battery management playing a critical role in success. Qualifying is one of the areas to have been tweaked ahead of F1 2026 returning to action in Miami.
Liam Lawson details F1 2026 qualifying mental challenge
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While qualifying previously was about drivers being on the ragged edge, pushing flat out for the last drops of performance and lap time, the method of constructing that ideal lap shifted in F1 2026.
Now, there is battery deployment and recharge in play.
With three race weekends running the new regulations in the books, various alterations were confirmed for Miami.
Qualifying is a key area of focus.
The maximum recharge for a qualifying lap has been reduced from 8MJ to 7MJ, in a bid to encourage more consistent flat-out driving.
Super clipping will also increase from a 250kW peak, to 350kW, in a further move to showcase performance in this new version of qualifying.
At Suzuka, it was put to Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson that qualifying was a different challenge around this circuit in F1 2026.
Lawson confirmed: “It is, unfortunately.
“It’s just more processing, and more rules to follow when you’re in qualifying than previously, when you were just flat out trying to extract everything out of the car.
“Sometimes you actually find time, and you feel like you’re on the limit, and then you come in, and actually you’ve spent more energy by doing that in the corners.”
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These rule tweaks are designed to put the emphasis back on performance in qualifying, a discipline which has naturally gained new layers of strategy under this formula.
Having made reference to this, Lawson was asked how hard it is to rewire the brain to consider best practices with energy usage in qualifying.
“Extremely,” he said, “because, obviously in qualifying, you’re trying to go as fast as you can.
“So just trusting, sometimes, that the methods that we have, you have to follow them, sometimes.
“It’s something we’re still learning.”
Lawson has scored 10 points thus far in F1 2026. Combined with teammate Arvid Lindblad’s four, it places Racing Bulls seventh in the early Constructors’ standings.
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