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Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson saw his chances of scoring points disappear as soon as the five red lights instantly went out at the start of the Australian Grand Prix.
Liam Lawson got bogged down off the line at the Australian Grand Prix and was swallowed up by the chasing pack, with Franco Colapinto doing incredibly well to avoid a huge collision as the New Zealander struggled to get his VCARB 03 moving.
The 24-year-old outqualified rookie teammate Arvid Lindblad, although the British teenager appeared to have the better of Lawson throughout every other session.
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There have been concerns raised about Lawson’s adaptation to this year’s new cars, and while he made some progress after his slow start, he ended up finishing five positions behind Lindblad.
Lawson received an update on his car in time for the race in Melbourne, but it would have done nothing to help the ‘harvesting’ problem that he complained about over the team radio throughout the rest of the race.
READ MORE: Who is Racing Bulls F1 driver Liam Lawson? Everything you need to know
Liam Lawson couldn’t understand ‘really bad harvesting’ during the Australian Grand Prix
Throughout the race, Lawson was complaining about charging up his battery, and within a few laps, he said: “I’m doing something wrong. I’m really aggressive harvesting at turn three, causing a lot of understeer.”
“I have really bad harvesting at turn 3,” Lawson continued. “It’s a massive handbrake, and I don’t know how to stop it.
“You can use push-toggle as a countermeasure now,” suggested his race engineer, to which the 24-year-old replied: “I’m already using push-toggle.”
Later in the race, Lawson said: “Low speed, I have no grip. Front left is going.
“I still have this weird balance, in low speed. Like, look at turn three.”
Does Liam Lawson already need to worry about Arvid Lindblad after the Australian Grand Prix?
Lawson also seemed to be struggling whenever he was following another car, stating: “Why can’t I have less energy when I’m following the car?
“I have massive wheelspin again. Every time it’s trying to charge more. The car is really difficult to drive at low speeds.”
As well as struggling with his own car, Lawson resurrected his battle with Sergio Perez, who was returning to the grid with Cadillac.
It showed how far back Lawson had slipped that he was battling the Mexican driver, and after being pushed off the track by Perez, he simply said: “That guy f—— sucks, bro.”
READ MORE: All to know about Racing Bulls from team principal to Red Bull affiliation
Liam Lawson explains his horror Australian Grand Prix race start but praises ‘quite OK’ race pace
Reflecting on a tricky first race of 2026, Lawson said in his official post-race debrief: “Honestly, the lights went out very quick, but I thought I nailed the reaction and the procedure, but I don’t know.
“Obviously, I’ll have to review it, but the car didn’t move, lost all power, and I couldn’t get power for another five seconds, so I was just sitting there. It’s pretty frustrating.”
Asked about the pace of the car, Lawson continued: “I think it was OK. We had some issues during the race.
“Every time I got to the back of a car, our energy management wasn’t really working properly, and I kept actually losing power.
“Obviously, a big learning curve for all of us today with these cars, but we just fought some issues during the race.
“I thought the pace of the car was actually quite OK.”
Racing Bulls will be delighted that they’ve already scored four points this season, but Lindblad beating his teammate on his debut immediately puts pressure on Lawson.
Guenther Steiner thinks Lawson has what it takes to lead Racing Bulls, but he will need to put in a better performance at next week’s Chinese Grand Prix, where he famously was dropped by Red Bull 12 months ago.
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