{"id":501332,"date":"2026-02-24T16:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T16:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501332\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T16:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T16:53:09","slug":"liam-lawson-confirms-2026-f1-cars-not-enjoyable-to-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501332\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Lawson confirms 2026 F1 cars &#8216;not enjoyable&#8217; to drive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Liam Lawson has delivered a blunt assessment of the new 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/series\/single-seater\/formula-1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1 <\/a>cars as concerns over the racing spectacle continue to grow. <\/p>\n<p>Entering 2026 with Racing Bulls once again, Lawson will race with the new Red Bull Ford power unit, which performed well across both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/racing\/2026\/pre-season-testing-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bahrain<\/a> tests.<\/p>\n<p>But one of the dominant topics in the Middle East continued to be the radical driving style and energy management required to extract performance.<\/p>\n<p>While the Red Bull power unit delivers in terms of energy management, Lawson was initially hesitant to confirm if the cars remain enjoyable to drive.<\/p>\n<p>Asked the question directly, Lawson said \u2018erm\u2019 followed by a pause that lasted an eternal seven-seconds, drawing laughter from the gathered media in the hospitality suite. <\/p>\n<p>After the comms team attempted to move proceedings on, he clarified his point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a combination\u201d, he said to media, including Motorsport Week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, when you\u2019re in qualifying, you want to drive a car as fast as you can. You don\u2019t have to think about managing energy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Liam-Lawson-F1-Bahrain-Testing-2-1024x576.webp.webp\" alt=\"Liam Lawson confessed his lack of enjoyment at driving the new 2026 F1 cars \" class=\"wp-image-238617\"  \/>Liam Lawson confessed his lack of enjoyment at driving the new 2026 F1 cars <\/p>\n<p>Liam Lawson claims lap time being wasted <\/p>\n<p>Expanding on his rationale, Liam Lawson confirmed the reduction in grip and downforce left crucial lap time being wasted, while also impacting the enjoyment of driving. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut at the same time, when you have less grip, you\u2019re sliding around more, and you feel like you\u2019re leaving lap time on the table,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cComing from a faster car, naturally, it\u2019s going to feel frustrating, or not as enjoyable, but at the same time, it\u2019s very early in the development stages, so I\u2019m sure as we go down the line, we\u2019ll get faster.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-vivid-red-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d3adefc868ecae5e5d3e9f85762f87c5\">READ MORE<a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/2026\/02\/23\/interview-the-formula-e-stars-family-dynamic-star-thats-set-up-f1-rookies-big-chance\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">:<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/2026\/02\/23\/interview-the-formula-e-stars-family-dynamic-star-thats-set-up-f1-rookies-big-chance\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Interview: The Formula E star\u2019s \u2018family\u2019 dynamic star that\u2019s set up F1 rookie\u2019s big chance<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liam Lawson has delivered a blunt assessment of the new 2026 Formula 1 cars as concerns over the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,3352,62050,85],"class_list":["post-501332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-liam-lawson","tag-racingbulls","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}