Why Liam Lawson refused to celebrate the best Formula 1 result of his career before the British Grand Prix
Friday, 4 July 2025
Liam Lawson didn’t see much point in celebrating one career-best result when it came after a string of disappointing weekends.
Racing Bulls have been working hard ahead of the British Grand Prix and are hopeful Lawson can again challenge for Q3 and a top-10 result.
The 2025 British Grand Prix begins at 2am on Monday (NZT) at Silverstone.
In the cut-throat world of Formula 1, the expression one swallow does not make a summer most definitely rings true.
So, despite a career-best sixth in Austria, Liam Lawson and Racing Bulls were quickly back into their work ahead of Monday morning’s (NZT) British Grand Prix.
'To celebrate one good weekend after seven or eight average weekends is not (good), we need to have more good weekends,' Lawson said.
'It was great, but at the end of the day, we need more of them, and that is the focus going into this weekend,' he told RacingNews365.
However, Lawson’s smile and relief in Austria were hard to miss post-race.
“Well, we’ll definitely have something to drink tonight. Maybe a Red Bull,” Racing Bulls engineer Ernesto Derniderio said over Lawson’s radio following last week’s sixth.
But Lawson confirmed the revelry was short-lived.
'In Formula 1, you only get 24 hours to take a good weekend in, let's say, and then we are straight back to racing,' Lawson said.
'We are making sure we are ready (for Silverstone) and working with the engineers, analysing last week and trying to take in what we can.'
A major factor in Lawson’s breakthrough performance was finally executing in qualifying, and given the high-speed nature of Silverstone, that suits their cars, there is confidence in the Racing Bulls camp that advancing to Q3 in consecutive weekends isn’t an impossible task.
'Obviously, it is a different track, but taking things that we learned, and there is some stuff on the car that I felt very comfortable with last week that we will take for this week.'
The 23-year-old Kiwi now sits 15th in the drivers' standings with 12 points, despite only scoring at Monaco (four points for eighth) and Austria (eight points for sixth).
A strong performance in Silverstone could lift Lawson even higher, given he only trails Carlos Sainz by a single point and the Aston Martin pairing of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll by two.
The Kiwi driver is nine points behind rookie Racing Bulls team-mate Isack Hadjar (21 points), who is 11th.
The drop of the chequered flag in Silverstone will mark the halfway point of the season and for drivers from the middle of the road teams, of more significance is the constructors' championship.
Racing Bulls (36 points) sit sixth, 19 points behind Williams (55) in fifth and just ahead of Haas (29), Aston Martin (28) and Kick Sauber (26).
Despite Hadjar scoring points in five separate grand prix, Monaco is the only time the team-mates have been in the top 10 together.
Between the Williams pairing of Sainz and Alex Albon, they have managed just a single point across the last three rounds, thanks largely to three DNFs and one DNS during that time.
If Williams’ reliability woes continue and Lawson and Hadjar can secure double points finishes in one or more of the remaining three rounds of the British, Belgian and Hungarian Grand Prix before the summer break, their positions could be quickly reversed.
Monday’s (NZT) British Grand Prix will be Lawson’s first attempt at the race, but he has previously won at the circuit in Formula 3, stood on the podium in Formula 2 and tested an F1 car there.
One of those tests came last year in a 2024 Red Bull and ended up being pivotal to Lawson winning the seat alongside Max Verstappen for 2025. Although that only lasted two weekends before he we demoted back to Racing Bulls in a straight swap with Yuki Tsunoda.
Racing Bulls will be running a one-off livery at Silverstone, designed by graffiti-inspired artist Slawn.
The 2025 British Grand Prix begins at 2am on Monday (NZT) with the first prctice begining at 11.30pm on Friday (NZT).