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June 30, 2025 9 mins

A career best Formula One finish hasn't completely banished the disappointment of an early season demotion for Liam Lawson.

He's come home sixth at the Austrian Grand Prix.

That made the Kiwi the best of the Red Bull-backed drivers, including Yuki Tsunoda - who replaced Lawson at Red Bull Racing just two races into the season.

Motorsport commentator Bob McMurray joined Piney to discuss.

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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from News Talk zed Be Korea.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Best Formula One finish for Liam Lawson at the Austrian
Grand Prix this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Liam Lawson managed to get sex as well as he
crossed the line.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Great day for Liam Lawson in sec Yeah, he's crossed
in sixth place to earn eight points for himself and
for racing balls. His teammate Isaac Hadgar twelfth. In fact,
Liam Lawson the best of all four cars from the
Red Bull stable. Max for Stappin was clipped at the start,
marking the first time he's failed to finish this season.
Yuki Sonoda came home sixteenth. Let's bring in motorsport expert

(00:44):
Bob McMurray, Bob Greater Chatty on Sports Talk. How significant
a day was this for Liam? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Hi Peney, Well, let's not look at the day, Let's
look at the weekends for Liam. He he's been in
a constant battle with his TEAMMATEE and his teammate Isaac
hadj has eclipsed him quite a lot. But this weekend,
if you look at the free practice one, okay Haji
was ahead of him. Then free practice two, free, Practice three,

(01:12):
qualifying one two and three. Liam was ahead of Haji
the whole way. In fact, even in the race, he
got a faster lap than Hajar. So Liam has had
a very good weekend generally. He he sort of said
at the beginning of the weekend, the car is more
comfortable for him. They've done a lot of work and
it's paid off. It looks comfortable for him. Now you've

(01:33):
got to admit that he was nearly knocked out on
the first corner. Well could turn three on the first
lap with the accident with Verstapan and Antonelli. But then
onwards he just stuck to his guns. He only did
one pit stop, so it was a remarkable race to
keep on just two sets of tires the whole way round,
whereas everybody else bar one Alonso was on two stops.

(01:57):
And Alonso had to follow him virtually for seventy one laps.
And you know, to keep a world champion behind you.
A remarkable weekend for him, and I think he can
be well pleased with himself.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
I want to drill down into a couple of points
you've made there. First of all, you know you often
when we have you on the show talk about about
Liam and his comparison with Isaac Kadjar in terms of
finishing ahead of him, out performing him. That's clearly quite important, Bob,
to outperform your teammate.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
It's extremely important and extremely important for Liam as well.
I think he denies it all the time, but I
think from Liam's point of view, the psychological effect of
getting employed by the top team as Max staff and
teammate and then dumped after just two races, I think

(02:47):
that has lived with him for some time. And then
coming into the Red the Racing Bulls team with a rookie,
a very promising rookie who's all you know, spit and
bluster are all sorts of things straight away, and he's
out there beating Liam. I think that kind of affected
his psyche little bit more, and I think he's taken

(03:08):
a while to get out of it. And I think
in the last one or two races, especially, or one
or two weekends, he's kind of got a different aspect
to me looking at him. He's got a different aspect
about his personality, about the way he's doing business in
the racing car. And I think we've seen this weekend
the result of that Now this may be specific. It

(03:29):
may be because he's well used to the austereized ring
use as he used to be the Austrian Grand Prix track.
It may be that he's well used to that track
in that car and it suited him. He has had
his best weekend this year coincidentally with Hajar's worst weekend
of this year. So you know, Swallows and Summers. We've

(03:52):
got to give it a one or two races to
see if he's on track. But I think he is
back on track. I really do, right, because you can't
do seventy odd laps around that place, seventy one laps
whatever it was with a world champion as close to
you behind you as you can possibly be and beat
him and be in front of fourteen other drivers. You

(04:15):
know you can't do that without some skill and belief
in your own ability, and that's what he's got. I
think this.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Weekend absolutely well. Let's go to two and three. On
lap one, Kimmie Antonelli crashing into Max for step and
ending both of their rass Now, Liam I think was
clipped as well, wasn't he? Can you talk us through
what you saw happen there?

Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, Well, Antonelly. For those people who haven't seen it,
turn three is an uphill, literally a sharp right hand bend.
On the first lap, people are driving into the two
three four abreast. It's very easy to get clipped, and
everybody is generally a little bit careful in there just
to get around it. Once you do the first lap,

(04:54):
on you go. Unfortunately, Antonelli was approaching just a little
bit quickly and he had to use the brakes a
little bit hard. He saw that he wasn't going to
break in time to miss the car in front of him,
so he went further to the right hand side, therefore
cutting that corner off completely. He would had no hope
of turning right in that case. He hit the brakes hard,

(05:18):
skidded up on the curb, and went straight ahead. I
think the first car he hit basically was Liam, but
fairly lightly. But then he cannoned into the Staffan and
took the Staffan's front wheel off maybe and certainly his
own front wheel. So Liam was very fortunate to get
away with that, and he was in a good position
at that time sixth positions still I think, and he

(05:41):
dropped to ninth after all that, so he had a
bit of a job to do. He had a bit
of work to do to get through the rest of
the race, and he did. He put his head down
and he drove brilliantly on an exceptionally hot day and
managing tires at the same time. It is a strategy
that we have seen Red Bull pull over the past

(06:04):
few races, sort of an off strategy to other people,
and it has failed in Liam's terms more than once. Well,
this time it worked and everything worked for him. So yeah,
an excellent an excellent performance on the day. But you know,
let's see if you can manage the same sort of
thing as Silverston coming up this coming weekend.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Absolutely, it's the word as well, Bob, if I could
on Yuki Sonoda sixteenth, the last of the drivers who
actually completed the race. He's had a torrid time of
things since taking that seat in the second Red Ball.
What on earth is the Red Bull team strategy with
regards to Max and the second car.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
If your guess is as good as mine now, because
they dug themselves into a bit of a hole, haven't they.
They've got a car that is well how much how
they couch it? It is the a car that is
designed around maxis happened, and it is a car that
has proven to be difficult for Perez in the first place,

(07:02):
and they thought he's no good, we need to change.
Crez was actually quite close to Max on many occasions,
but unfortunately they got rid of him. Liam was straight
in there, couldn't cope after two races at all, couldn't
even get near it. And then they thought, oh, it's
no problem, would get Sunoda in there because he's he's
clearly a lot better. Well, he's done worse. Frankly, he's

(07:25):
done worse. Just look at his last this race this weekend.
Liam was the last driver to be unlapped. Everybody else
was lapps, so Noda was down at the bottom. Basically
he finished two laps back. I mean, you know, it's
got to be something that they've got to sort out
with the car. I don't think they're going to change
drivers anytime this year. I think they'll keep the same

(07:48):
same driver. I hope they do, because I hope they
don't put Liam nor Haja back in that car. That
would be a disaster for both of them. But it's
remarkable how they have centered their whole team around Max
Forstappen and this is what's coming to pay now. There
aren't any drivers that they'd want to put in that
car now. The opposite when you look at the McLarens,

(08:09):
for instance, and you look at the superb job they've
done and letting the two guys race with disaster on
every corner potential, it's different aspect completely. It's a different
way of running racing. It's a different way of encouraging racing.
And they let their guys race. More to the point,

(08:30):
nothing to do with Sonoda and Bestap and because Sonoda
wouldn't get close enough for stap And to race. But
it's good that McLaren are able to design a calf
of both people, as do most of the teams. In fact,
going off subject a little bit, the two McLaren drivers
and the way they're going racing with McLaren at the
moment makes me smile because it reminds me of my

(08:52):
days there with Set and Frost who were allowed to
race each other and that had some remarkable outcomes as well.
So back to Red Bull, I think they've got themselves
into a deep hole because who can go in that
seat now? They haven't got anybody else that is going
to just slip into it until they change the design
of the car.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Such interesting times. Good weekend though for Liam Lawson. Always
enjoy and appreciate your expertise. Bob, thanks much for joining us.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
Cheers, Brainy, my pleasure.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
No good on you mate, that's Bob McMurray. You always
learned so much listening to Bob, don't you.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
For more from sports talk, listen live to News Talks.
It'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
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