Liam Lawson rued the race-ending mistake he made in the Qatar Grand Prix Sprint amid what was likely his last race appearance this year.
Lawson has deputised for Daniel Ricciardo in the AlphaTauri AT04 since the Australian sustained a broken left hand in an FP3 crash at Zandvoort at the end of August.
The New Zealander had excelled in his first four outings, peaking with a ninth-place finish in Singapore to secure AlphaTauri’s best result of the season to date.
However, Lawson committed his first high-profile error in Formula 1 at the start of Saturday’s Sprint Race, losing control of his car and ending up in the gravel at Turn 2.
Reflecting on the blunder, Lawson, who has been overlooked for a 2024 F1 race seat, admits he will continue to mull over the incident once he returns to the sidelines.
Asked if he would be easily able to move the mishap aside on Saturday evening, Lawson responded: “No, because I don’t have time to make these kind of mistakes.
“Obviously, I have a short run in Formula 1 at the moment, so it’s important for me to make the most of every session. And I definitely can’t afford to have mistakes like this.”
After only qualifying 14th in the earlier Sprint Shootout, Lawson opted for the Medium compound with the hope of capitalising on the Soft tyre runners losing grip at the end.
But having managed to gain positions at Turn 1, Lawson concedes that he was caught out by cars encountering moments ahead at Turn 2 and was unable to reduce his speed before his car pitched into a sudden spin.
“It was obviously pretty poor. But it’s the same for everybody. So obviously a big mistake for me and I’m obviously very sorry to the team,” he reiterated.
“Really caught me out. Turn 1 was really good on-line, made up some places.
“Then Turn 2, I saw a lot of cars having big slides, but by then I’d already committed to the speed that I was taking and they checked up and I basically just lost it. Big mistake.”
Although Lawson navigated the opening exchanges of Sunday’s grand prix unscathed, the Red Bull affiliate bemoaned Lance Stroll cutting across his path, costing him places.
Lawson eventually struggled to 17th by the chequered flag, last of the classified runners. The Kiwi concedes that it’s “pretty tough” to end his substitute spell with his worst result.
While Ricciardo delayed his comeback to miss the round in Qatar, the eight-time Formula 1 race winner is set to return to the fray next weekend in Austin, Texas.
“We had a good start next to Stroll and [he] just didn’t really see me, so swiped across the front of me,” Lawson explained.
“And then I lost like two more spots, so it was obviously pretty frustrating there.
“Obviously you want to go out on a high, so this is pretty tough to finish off on. It’s just something really to look into.
“Obviously the first couple of races went really good, we were building up, and then this weekend I think we just struggled.”
