{"id":616587,"date":"2026-04-19T06:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T06:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616587\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T06:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T06:46:10","slug":"liam-lawson-reflects-on-2026-formula-1-season-start-racing-bulls-and-new-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616587\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Lawson reflects on 2026 Formula 1 season start, Racing Bulls, and new regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liam Lawson says Racing Bulls have built a strong platform at the start of the 2026 Formula 1<\/a> season, scoring in every race so far while continuing to adapt to the demands of the new regulations.<\/p>\n

The New Zealander pointed to a productive pre season and a competitive showing in Melbourne as key early positives, with the team maximising its current package while targeting further gains through development.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cPre-season was good, and we arrived in Melbourne<\/a> quite strong, stronger than in the other two races. We\u2019ve maximized what we could from the speed we have, and the team has done a really good job.<\/p>\n

“Going forward, the goal is to find more performance in the car, and once we do that, we\u2019ll be in a strong position. We\u2019ve been able to score in every race this year, which gives us a good platform to keep building.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Racing Bulls have delivered consistent results, Lawson made clear that unlocking more raw pace and downforce will be critical to moving further up the grid.<\/p>\n

Balance versus battery defines early 2026 challenge\"Lawson-China-2-2026\"\/<\/p>\n

Lawson highlighted one of the defining characteristics of the new era, with drivers forced to balance corner performance against energy usage, particularly in qualifying conditions.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThis year, there\u2019s quite a big difference between the balance you can extract performance wise through corners on throttle especially in Qualifying compared to how much battery you\u2019re using.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s probably been the biggest challenge for us as drivers to get used to. In our case, it\u2019s been less of a factor compared to the top teams, but as we become more competitive, we\u2019ll start to feel it more, as I did in Japan.<\/p>\n

“Our power unit has been very strong, particularly for a first-season PU. We\u2019ve been maximising what we can from the car, but once we find more raw speed and downforce, we\u2019ll be in a much stronger position.\u201d<\/p>\n

That trade off has become a central talking point in the opening races, with Lawson suggesting Racing Bulls have so far been less exposed to its extremes since they are not fighting for higher positions, but will encounter it more as performance improves.<\/p>\n

Safety and development at the forefront\"Lawson-Melbourne-2026\"\/<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the broader picture, Lawson said the entire grid is still learning how to extract the best from the new cars, with safety remaining the top priority following early season incidents.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt\u2019s been a very different start to the season, the cars are very different, and we\u2019re still trying to get our heads around them.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re all in the same boat, so it\u2019s about working together to find solutions that work for everyone. So far, we\u2019ve done a good job of extracting performance from the car, and we have some exciting upgrades to look forward to.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a regulations point of view, the biggest priority is safety which everyone is in agreement on, especially after what we saw in Japan.<\/p>\n

“We want to avoid situations like that going forward. On the performance side, things will always evolve and we\u2019ll get faster over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawson closed by underlining development as the decisive factor for the rest of the season, with Racing Bulls preparing for a series of upgrades on accelerated timelines.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cThe main focus for us, and for the rest of the teams, is development. We\u2019re going to see some big upgrades coming, especially this year, with development happening on shorter timelines.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ll be using the simulator to optimize these upgrades as much as possible. Reliability has been very strong, and from a strategy point of view we\u2019ve also done a great job.<\/p>\n

“Overall, it\u2019s been a positive start, so we will keep pushing in that direction,” Lawson concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liam Lawson says Racing Bulls have built a strong platform at the start of the 2026 Formula 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,35119,813,816,3352,9107,85,9806],"class_list":["post-616587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-liam-lawson","tag-racing-bulls","tag-sports","tag-visa-cash-app-racing-bulls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616587","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=616587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}