{"id":624839,"date":"2026-10-09T00:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T00:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/624839\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T00:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T00:02:09","slug":"formula-1-why-liam-lawson-needs-to-be-cautious-after-mixed-results-in-singapore-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/624839\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula 1: Why Liam Lawson needs to be cautious after mixed results in Singapore Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, 2025 wasn\u2019t as kind.<\/p>\n

Returning to Singapore, Lawson\u2019s weekend was blighted by hitting the wall in the second practice session<\/a>, and then again in the third<\/a>, leaving him shy of crucial time on track come qualifying.<\/p>\n

As a result, the Kiwi could only qualify 14th<\/a>, before a strategy gamble didn\u2019t pay off, seeing him come home 15th after the 61-lap affair.<\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam Lawson for AlphaTauri at the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix. Photo \/ Red Bull<\/p>\n

This year, though, Lawson returns in a much stronger position. With seventh-place in Malaysia last week<\/a>, the Kiwi comfortably sits ninth in the world drivers championship.<\/p>\n

His 65 points are 24 clear of Alpine\u2019s Pierre Gasly in 10th, in the race to be crowned \u201cbest of the rest\u201d<\/a> \u2013 the highest-placed driver outside the top four teams, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull.<\/p>\n

On top of that, 51 of those points have come for Racing Bulls, and have the team clear of Alpine in the estimated $180 million battle<\/a> for fifth in the constructors championship, at a time where his future is still to be confirmed.<\/p>\n

And given this weekend is a sprint race, shortening the structure from three practice sessions down to one, Lawson wants to continue where he left off at Sepang.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really good track,\u201d he said. \u201cWith sprint weekends, you get two shots at everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve recently started the weekends quite strong, now it feels like everyone else has caught up. Hopefully we can start strong here.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s just a sick track, [it\u2019s] really, really cool. And it\u2019s a night race as well \u2013 I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam Lawson after the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix. Photo \/ Red Bull<\/p>\n

Potentially throwing the weekend more into Lawson\u2019s favour, heavy rain is forecast for Monday morning\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Last week, despite a 90-minute delay, Racing Bulls showed that their car is more than capable in the wet \u2013 not just through Lawson taking seventh, but by teammate Arvid Lindblad going from last to 10th over the course of the race.<\/p>\n

In particular, a call from Racing Bulls to start both drivers on intermediate tyres paid off, as other teams gambled with slicks on a damp track.<\/p>\n

As a result, Lawson had what he\u2019s described as \u201cthe best start\u201d of his Formula One career, and even found himself fighting with Verstappen for third place into turn one.<\/p>\n

With Singapore being a street race, overtaking can tend to be at a premium once the lights go out. If Lawson gets his way, though, a wet race would change the equation completely. <\/p>\n

\u201cHere, specifically, [rain] would be definitely interesting,\u201d Lawson continued. \u201cIt would be cool to have more wet races through the year. We haven\u2019t really raced in the wet since last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The weekend\u2019s only practice session begins at 9.30pm NZT on Friday, before sprint qualifying at 1.30am NZT on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Alex Powell<\/a> is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, 2025 wasn\u2019t as kind. Returning to Singapore, Lawson\u2019s weekend was blighted by hitting the wall in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[53396,1443,74,5195,15214,100698,127424,29188,10813,1360,78,47525,20409,12235,9812,111,139,69,47527,5909,1527,9739,213,61,4276,6730],"class_list":["post-624839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-53396","tag-about","tag-after","tag-be","tag-cautious","tag-feelings","tag-forgiven","tag-formula","tag-grand","tag-having","tag-in","tag-lawson","tag-liam","tag-mixed","tag-needs","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prix","tag-results","tag-return","tag-singapore","tag-sports","tag-to","tag-why","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}