How a Las Vegas gamble turned into a dud bet for Liam Lawson
Monday, 25 November 2024
Liam Lawson finished 16th in the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
After struggling with his car all weekend, his team took a gamble late in the race that fell flat.
Lawson will be back in action in the Qatar Grand Prix on Monday morning (NZT).
Taking a gamble to chase your losses in Las Vegas is usually a low-percentage play and that’s exactly how things panned out for Liam Lawson.
Lawson and his VCARB team were down on their luck for most of the weekend on the street circuit that runs down the famous strip and in the shadow of the Sphere, so a Hail Mary play held merit.
That came via a decision, during the running of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, to try and make a one-stop strategy work. The bold play failed, but it was more a calculated gamble than a reckless risk given Lawson didn’t have the pace to contest for points and was down in 13th before and after the first round of pits stops.
Pre-race, most teams were preparing a one-stop strategy but the level of tyre degradation around the tricky street circuit quickly put that to bed.
Following a daring first lap pass on Kevin Magnussen, Lawson made his first stop on lap 12, the same as race winner George Russell and Max Verstappen - whose fifth secured the F1 world championship title for 2024 - when the Kiwi was running in 13th.
With Lawson’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda firmly inside the top 10 after the first round of stops, the VCARB team decided to hedge their bets by asking Lawson to conserve his tyres and go the 50 lap distance.
The 22-year-old Kiwi made a brief appearance inside the top 10 as other drivers ahead of him began taking their second stops from lap 27, but it was short-lived.
As Lawson’s tyres continued to go off, he was picked off one-by-one by the chasing pack on fresh rubber. Finally, on lap 39, the white flag was waved and Lawson pitted again.
“We tried to one stop and stretch it, but I think we tried to stretch that second stint a little too long and ended up boxing, coming out nowhere, it just didn’t work,” Lawson told reporters post-race.
However, the difference between, what turned out to be a dud bet, for the Red Bull junior team compared to the average Casino punter, was Lawson didn’t have anything to lose given he was already struggling to hold onto 13th spot.
He came back out in 17th and only managed to move to 16th when Esteban Ocon dropped back. Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon retired making for just 16 finishes.
Magnussen was the only driver who made one stop work but he drifted out of the points to finish 12th.
Grip and car stability under braking were constant points of contention for all 20 drivers across the weekend but Lawson seemed to have a car that was handling far worse than Tsunoda’s.
“You can't really push the car because of how low the grip is and the tyres grain up and you're almost driving on a knife edge all the time,“ Lawson said post-race.
He squeezed into Q2 24 hours before the race in 15th pace and couldn’t advance his starting grid any higher and Lawson acknowledged that didn’t help his cause.
“We had similar issues today as we did yesterday, which is costing us quite a lot, but we’ll look into it and solve it for next week,” he said.
Guillaume Dezoteux, head of vehicle performance for VCARB, said Lawson’s issues were “struggling more with the car balance and the tyre grip which is something we need to understand better in the coming days”.
Team principal Laurent Mekies praised Tsunoda’s ninth-place finish but acknowledged Lawson didn’t have the car to match that.
“It was a more difficult weekend for Liam and his car was certainly very tricky to drive around here, something which we still need to understand fully,” Mekies said.
With his F1 future on the line, Lawson is determined to bounce back in Monday morning’s (NZT) Qatar Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the season.
“We need to make the most of the next two races and try to end strong,” Lawson said.