AlphaTauri sub Liam Lawson says he’ll need to “relearn everything” in the event of a dry race on Sunday at Zandvoort after his challenging baptism of fire on Saturday.
The Kiwi was drafted in at the last hour to replace Daniel Ricciardo after the latter broke his hand in a crash in Friday’s second practice at the Dutch Grand Prix venue.
Lawson was up against treacherous track conditions from the outset when he got going in FP3, but the 21-year-old managed to steer clear of trouble, save for an inconsequential spin in the session.
In qualifying, in equally difficult conditions, he sensibly didn’t force the issue and settled on P20 from where he will start his first F1 race on Sunday.
But dry weather, as forecasted for the event, would put the AlphaTauri rookie in a very different environment, one littered with many unknowns.
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“Obviously tomorrow it’s looking potentially, if it’s dry, I’ve got to relearn everything again, because I haven’t driven in the dry,” Lawson said.
“So it’s going to be a very tough race. I’m excited. At the same time, I know it’s going to be challenging, and I know we’ve got a lot to get through. So I think we’re just after a clean race.
“The first half is going to be extremely tough, especially if it is dry. I’m going to be learning everything for that first part.
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“I haven’t even done any long runs or anything like that. So I don’t know how the tyre performs. It’s going to be a big learning curve.
“By the end of the race, hopefully I’m in a much more comfortable position with the car. That would definitely be the target.”
Lawson detailed how events had played out on Friday that led to him replacing Ricciardo.
“It was all very quick. I was in the Red Bull garage watching the session,” he said.
“And obviously, the crash, it was just a freak accident where it wasn’t a big crash or anything like that, just the way the steering wheel flipped around. And it’s never something you want to see. So firstly, I feel for Daniel.
“But I had the news that he had hurt his hands, so we went to the drivers’ briefing as a sort of precaution. And then it was midway through the drivers’ briefing, I got a message.
“I was very focused in on that second half of the drivers’ briefing! Yeah, just a lot to take in, and realising that it was going be a huge amount of learning to do in the next sort of 24 hours.”
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As Red Bull’s de facto reserve driver, Lawson typically takes part in Milton Keynes in the preparations that precede a race weekend.
But the Kiwi was unable to attend the briefings mast week or take part in sim runs as he was racing last weekend in a round of the Super Formula series in Japan.
“I was racing last weekend in Japan,” he explained. “So I flew straight here.
“Definitely would have loved to do more prep for this, especially the first couple of practice sessions, but obviously an opportunity like this is something that, for me, I waited my whole life for.
“So I’ll take it with both hands and make the most out of it.”
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Lawson forced to ‘relearn everything’ in potentially dry Dutch GP F1i.com.
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