Liam Lawson on his F1 season, technology in the sport, and the Miami Grand Prix

Today at 10:45 AM

SB Nation talked exclusively with Liam Lawson ahead of the Miami Grand Prix

MIAMI, Florida — The 2025 Formula 1 season did not begin like Liam Lawson imagined.

Tapped by Red Bull to replace Sergio Pérez alongside Max Verstappen, Lawson began the year driving for the senior team with hopes of helping Red Bull return to the top of the Constructors' Championship standings. But after he struggled to open the year, Red Bull decided to switch him and Yuki Tsunoda, returning Lawson to the seat he held last year at Visa Cash App Racing Bulls.

Still, the young driver has his sights set on fighting to the front of the F1 grid.

SB Nation caught up with Lawson ahead of this weekend's Miami Grand Prix, chatting with the VCARB driver about the start of this season, the team's partnership with ExxonMobil, and life as an F1 driver.

Our discussion began with the start of the season, and Lawson's return to VCARB. While no driver wants to face what Lawson has dealt with at the start of the year, the driver credited the team at VCARB for helping to make his return as easy as possible.

"It's been as smooth and as I would say good as it could have been," said Lawson of the move to VCARB.

"It's never easy between races in a season to make a team switch, So, I guess, fortunately for me, I've had experience in the past of coming in mid-season and trying to adapt quickly.

"But, it's always tough."

Lawson also made it clear that driving for VCARB before helped ease the transition.

"So I would say it was not the easiest, but I think the team did a really good job of making it as smooth as possible.

"And obviously, it wasn't a new team, it was a team that I've worked with plenty in the past."

Something else that has helped that transition? The consistency of the VCARB02. While Red Bull's challenger has proven to be a bit difficult to drive this season, VCARBS's 2025 car has been a more consistent platform for its drivers.

Still, moving from one car to another requires an adjustment period, which is part of life in F1.

"I would say it's pretty good right now," began Lawson when asked about his comfort level with the VCARB02. "It probably took a weekend or two to get fully adjusted again, it does drive differently to the Red Bull.

"I would say as drivers, we are, regardless of what car we're driving, we're there to adapt and drive that car to the best that it can be driven," continued Lawson. "It's something that we all have to learn and adapt to and that takes different amounts of time depending on how that car drives, but I would say right now I feel in a good place."

Something else that has helped Lawson and VCARB this year is their partnership with ExxonMobil. In addition to being the team's Fuels and Lubricants partner, the energy company has a Trackside Laboratory, that analyzes fuel and lubricant samples and then reports data back to the team, detecting any indications of engine wear or deterioration.

This is part of the wealth of information and data available to teams and drivers throughout a race weekend, and to hear Lawson tell the story, every bit of data matters when the field is so tight.

"It's all the small things that make a difference in Formula One, especially in the last year of a regulation change where, the teams right now are finding tiny little things and, and the difference between, one or two teams can basically knock you out in Q1 or put you into Q3, which makes a huge difference in the race.

"So, we're obviously trying to find the small details to be as fast as we can, and that partnership is helping us do that."

Last year at the United States Grand Prix I was lucky enough to be in Alpine's garage during qualifying, with a headset on so I could listen to the team's radio chatter. I was instantly blown away by the amount of information the drivers were given throughout the lap, which left me wondering how they could manage to keep the car where it needed to be given all the chatter.

I asked Lawson how he and the rest of the drivers can balance what they're hearing, with what they are doing.

"I would say it's definitely a lot more in Formula One than any other category that you race in," began Lawson.

"So when you come into Formula One, it's the biggest adjustment for sure is dealing with communication, and I guess the amount of activity you're doing in the car."

So it helps the drivers that they started racing at an early age, so the driving becomes almost "subconscious" in Lawson's words.

"But I guess that's also why we spend, since being six or seven years old, we're driving go-karts and race cars and eventually, the driving part itself is pretty subconscious.

"You're not really thinking too much about it.

"It's all that stuff that you're thinking about," continued Lawson. "You're thinking about communicating with the team and making sure the car's in the best window, and time management, and all these other things.

"So, there's a lot of communication, but I'd say people would be surprised by how much of the driving is actually, you're not really thinking about it.

It's very natural."

That is also one of the toughest parts of Lawson's job.

Every time I've been lucky enough to speak with a driver, I ask them what the hardest aspect of their job is. Dealing with that communication is one of the aspects Lawson pointed to.

"I would say in the car, it's that communication," began Lawson.

"That's the biggest difference between any other category is the information you're absorbing in the car and how active you are behind the wheel to try and adjust things.

"[There are] hundreds and hundreds of things we can adjust on the steering wheel in a race, or in a session or in a qualifying session, so, yeah, trying to do all of those things as accurately as possible."

Outside of the car? The toughest part of Lawson's job is the travel. Formula 1 takes drivers to 24 different race weekends, and the travel can catch up with you if you are not taking care of yourself.

"Travel is pretty tough sometimes," described Lawson. "You can get sick quite a lot with how much you travel and how much jet lag you're dealing with, and things like that.

"So, it's trying to stay on top of your health, to be honest, makes a big difference."

Our conversation concluded with this weekend, and the Miami Grand Prix. Despite this being Lawson's third season racing in F1, this will be his first race in Miami.

The VCARB driver pointed to the "atmosphere" in Miami are one of the reasons for his excitement.

"It's hard to have an expectation on the weekend and on the track. I'm looking forward to driving the track. It looks quite cool."

As far as what Lawson is hoping to accomplish, the tightly competitive field this year has Lawson hesitant to make any predictions.

"But I would say on a result, it's very hard to say.

"Formula One is obviously very, very close at the moment and, to be honest, if you look at last year's results versus this year's, quite often we go into a weekend thinking, 'ok, this track worked for us last year,' and then it doesn't work for us this year, and vice versa.

"So, it's really hard to say.

"But it looks like a cool track. It's a very cool place, very cool atmosphere. And yeah, for me, it's exciting to be racing for the first time here."

Lawson and the rest of the grid will start racing on Friday, as this weekend includes an F1 Sprint race. Drivers will have just one hour of practice to get acclimated before F1 Sprint qualifying.

We'll see how quickly Lawson adapts.

SB Nation will be on the ground for the entire Miami Grand Prix, so check our story stream all week long for full coverage!