劳森：我一直知道2025年本可以不同——现在你们也看到了
在荷兰大奖赛上顶替手腕受伤的哈贾尔，利亚姆·劳森时隔18个月重返红牛，排位赛中紧追队友维斯塔潘，表现亮眼。
利亚姆·劳森：我一直知道2025年本可以有所不同——现在你们也知道了
在受伤的伊萨克·哈贾尔缺阵的情况下，利亚姆·劳森替补参加一级方程式荷兰大奖赛，他在这次临时回归红牛的比赛中表现出色，排位赛成绩紧咬队友马克斯·维斯塔潘
距离他在一级方程式中为红牛效力那段只跑了两位比赛、堪称灾难性的短暂时期已经过去十八个月，利亚姆·劳森画上了一个圆满的句号，兑现了他一直说自己会兑现的承诺。
由于维斯塔潘的常规队友哈贾尔因手腕受伤缺阵，劳森从小红牛被召回，在赞德沃特周末驾驶这位法国车手的小红牛22赛车出战。
对于红牛来说，这是最合乎逻辑的选择，因为劳森相比新秀队友阿尔维德·林德布拉德拥有丰富的F1经验，相比替补车手角田裕毅也更了解2026年的赛车，而角田则转而进入了小红牛（小红牛）。
对劳森来说，感觉赌注要大得多。在继续为自己争取F1长期未来的过程中，赞德沃特是一个出乎意料的机会，让他可以弥补第一次效力红牛期间犯下的错误——那段经历在2025年初仅持续了两场比赛，就被时任车队领队克里斯蒂安·霍纳和车手顾问赫尔穆特·马科毫无体面地用角田换了下来。
就像重回赛场、效力于姊妹车队的角田一样，劳森把赞德沃特的冲刺赛环节当作常规比赛周末的一部分来对待，以此为自己在周六下午的大奖赛排位赛积蓄状态。
劳森没费太大力气就晋级了前十名排位决战（shootout），他在第三节排位赛（Q3）跑出的1分11.733秒让他排在发车位的第八位。这一圈比杆位慢了0.570秒，但关键的是，只比队友维斯塔潘慢了十分之一秒，而红牛在荷兰人的主场正苦于速度不足。这与他在2025年澳大利亚大奖赛红牛首秀时排位第18、次周在中国排位第20的表现相比，已是天壤之别。
当Motorsport.com问劳森在赞德沃特紧紧咬住维斯塔潘有多么令人满意时，他说：“要在很短的时间内努力提升状态非常具有挑战性，但显然目标就是整个周末不断进步。大家做得非常好，帮助我在赛车里尽可能感到舒适。我感觉我几乎把赛车的所有潜力都榨出来了。
“作为车手，我们都有很强的自信，所以我没有抱太高的期望，只是尽力做好最充分的准备。鉴于今年赛车的速度，我只是尽量紧跟马克斯，并努力从他做的事情中学习。今天我们执行得很好。”
尽管把一项复杂的运动简化成简单的因果关系很诱人，但劳森在赞德沃特的近乎完美的表现——与他在红牛一级方程式赛车首秀时的截然相反的结果——不可能归结为单一因素。
当时的环境不可能相差更多了，上赛季初劳森从第一天起就处于被动，驾驶着一辆难以驾驭的小红牛21。他此前从未在墨尔本或上海比赛过，还没来得及站稳脚跟就接到了走人的通知。而且红牛之前的管理层似乎从来没有真正相信过劳森，只是对他的信任略多于角田裕毅而已。
劳森解释说：“去年显然非常接近，因为那些赛车处于规则的最后一年，所以已经被完全开发到极限了。总的来说，那辆车非常难开，而且我从未去过墨尔本和中国。中国是冲刺赛周末，那几个周末发生了很多对我们不利的事情，然后就那样了。”
2026年这一代F1赛车也起到了帮助作用，因为在排位赛中更容易达到极限，而且红牛最新的赛车不像之前那辆难以驾驭的前代车型那样处于刀锋边缘。但是，除了使用相同的红牛福特动力单元之外，劳森发现小红牛22与VCARB 03相比是一辆完全不同的赛车。
他解释说：“我能描述的最好方式是，除了动力单元之外，每一件东西的感觉都不一样。转向的感觉与赛车的动态表现、过弯时的平衡，当然还有高速抓地力，一切都不一样。”
将他现在的赞德沃特赛车与2025年的红牛相比，他说：“那是指把赛车扔进弯角，并且知道和感觉到它会做出什么反应。去年，这辆赛车至少在赛季初处于如此刀锋般的边缘，如果你没有达到那个极限，就会损失大量的圈速，而今年有更多的因素在起作用。”
不过，规格不同的不仅仅是赛车。2025年初的那个劳森，和在荷兰大奖赛面对更换赛车这一艰巨任务的这个劳森，也不是同一个版本。在拥有了一年半的经验之后，这位24岁的车手感觉自己准备得更充分了，作为红牛二队（小红牛）的车手，他已经变得更全面。
这位新西兰车手指出：“我也学到了很多，只是一些个人的东西。去年刚进入车队时，我显然以为自己会有更多时间在赛车里——所以当时我基本上是在适应马克斯在赛车中拥有的一切。
“如果有更多时间，我显然觉得自己本可以适应那辆赛车。但来到这个周末，我已经参加了很多场一级方程式（Formula 1）比赛。除此之外，就是多了一些经验，帮助我为这个周末做准备。”
如果说有一个关于劳森的定性是他最反对的，那就是他的首次红牛之旅的失败是因为缺乏信心，这是当时人们的说法。劳森一直反驳这种说法，并表示他只是需要更多的驾驶时间。在赞德沃特，用一些事实来支持这一点，感觉很好。
“这太棒了，”他点点头说。“我一直都知道，如果情况不同，事情本来会有不同的结果。但也许对你们大家以及对全世界来说，现在你们也能看到了。”
英文原文
Liam Lawson: I always knew 2025 could have been different - now you do too
Subbing for the injured Isack Hadjar at Formula 1's Dutch Grand Prix, Liam Lawson shone on his one-off Red Bull return by shadowing team-mate Max Verstappen in qualifying
Eighteen months on from a calamitous two-race stint with Red Bull in Formula 1, Liam Lawson came full circle by delivering on the promise he always said he would.
With Verstappen's regular team-mate Hadjar sidelined by a wrist injury, Lawson was recalled from satellite team Racing Bulls to step into the Frenchman's RB22 for the Zandvoort weekend.
For Red Bull, it was the most logical choice given Lawson's extensive F1 experience compared to rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad, and his knowledge of the 2026 cars compared to reserve driver Yuki Tsunoda, who slotted in at Racing Bulls instead.
For Lawson, it felt like there was a lot more at stake. As he continues to stake his claim for a long-term F1 future, Zandvoort was an unexpected opportunity to right the wrongs of his first Red Bull stint, which lasted all of two races at the start of 2025 before being unceremoniously swapped with Tsunoda by then team boss Christian Horner and driver advisor Helmut Marko.
Like series returnee Tsunoda at the sister team, Lawson treated Zandvoort's sprint sessions as if they were part of a regular weekend to build himself up for grand prix qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
Having advanced to the top 10 shoot-out without too much trouble, Lawson's Q3 lap of 1m11.733s yielded eighth on the grid. That lap was 0.570s off pole but, crucially, only a tenth behind team-mate Verstappen as Red Bull struggled for pace on the Dutchman's home soil. A world away from qualifying 18th on his Red Bull debut at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix and 20th the following week in China.
"It's been very challenging to try and build up in a short space of time, but obviously the target was to keep improving through the weekend," Lawson said when asked by Motorsport.com how satisfying it was to stick close to Verstappen in Zandvoort. "It was a good job from everybody to help me get me as comfortable as possible in the car. I feel like I extracted pretty much everything I had out of the car.
"As drivers we all have plenty of self-belief, so without expecting too much I tried to be as prepared as possible. Knowing the speed of the car this year, I just was trying to get as close to Max as possible and try to learn from what he was doing. Today we executed well."
As tempting as it is to distil a complex sport down to a simple cause and effect, it's impossible to pin Lawson's squeaky clean Zandvoort performance - the opposite outcome of his first go in a Red Bull F1 car - to a singular factor.
The circumstances couldn't have been much more different, with Lawson on the back foot from day one at the start of last season in a difficult to drive RB21. Having never driven at either Melbourne or Shanghai before, Lawson was never able to get his feet under the table before being given his marching orders. It also never felt like Red Bull's previous management truly believed in Lawson, only that it had more faith in him than in Tsunoda.
"Last year it was obviously extremely close, because the cars were in the last year of the regulations, so they were fully developed," Lawson explained. "Overall, the car was very difficult to drive and on top of that, I'd never been to Melbourne and China. China was a sprint weekend, there's plenty of things that happened over those weekends that didn't help us and then that was it."
The 2026 generation of F1 cars has also helped, as it has become easier to get to the limit in qualifying and Red Bull's latest car is less of a knife-edge than its recalcitrant predecessor. But other than sharing the same power unit from Red Bull Ford Powertrains, Lawson found the RB22 to be a completely different car compared to the VCARB 03.
"The best way I can describe it is that outside of the power unit every single thing feels different," he explained. "The way the steering feels versus how the car moves, balance through corners, obviously the high-speed grip, everything's different about it.
Comparing his Zandvoort machine to the 2025 Red Bull, he said: "It's throwing a car into a corner and knowing and feeling what it's going to do. Last year, the car was on such a knife edge at least at the start that if you weren't on that limit then it was a huge lap time killer and this year there are so many more factors."
It's not just the car that's of a different specification, though. That early 2025 version of Lawson also wasn't the same spec as the one facing the uphill task to change cars at the Dutch Grand Prix. With a season-and-a-half of experience under his belt, the 24-year-old felt better prepared and has become a more complete package as a driver at Racing Bulls.
"I've also learnt a lot, just personal things," the New Zealander pointed out. "I went into last year, obviously thinking I was going to have more time in the car - so I was more or less adapting to everything that Max had in the car.
"With more time obviously I feel like I would have adjusted to the car. But coming into this weekend, I've had a lot more races in Formula 1. Outside of that, it's just having a bit more experience trying to prepare this weekend."
If there's one characterisation Lawson has fought against the most, then it's that the failure of his first Red Bull foray was down to a lack of confidence, as was suggested at the time. Lawson always challenged that line and said he just needed more seat time. It felt good to back that up with some facts in Zandvoort.
"It's great," he nodded. "It's something I've always known that with different circumstances, things would have gone differently. But maybe to you guys and to the world, now you can see it as well."
Motorsport.com ·
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