Kiwi Formula One driver Liam Lawson's hoping his form in practice can translate into qualifying overnight at the Canadian Grand Prix.
He's logged two top 10 finishes in practice, finishing 8th and 10th respectively on the first day of the race weekend.
Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix is tomorrow morning.
NZ Herald Sports Journalist Alex Powell joined Piney to recap Lawson’s impressive day.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine
from Newstalk zed B.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Lawson's log two top ten finishers in practice for Formula
ones Canadian Grand Prix. The Key with Racing Balls driver
finished eighth and tenth respectively on the first day of
the race weekend.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It's positive, as close as usual at the moment. Personally,
it's been a fun day. It's a cool track. It's
been a place of once it come to you for
a long time. So just very very close. We need
to keep pushing the limits and finding everybody speed we can.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Qualifying tomorrow morning. The race itself goes at six on
Monday morning. New Zealand time. Let's bring in our Formula
one expert from the New Zealand Herald, Alex Powell. Alex,
thanks for stopping. And how happy will Liam Lawson be
with his day afternoon?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Piney hope you will. I think he will be content
with his day. But it's also you do have to
look at practice with a grain of salt. That you
don't win anything on a Friday.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Tell us about that, because I I am interested to
know how accurate and indicate practice is to the way
that a weekend might play out for somebody.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
So generally, practice one you get to grips with the
track and what your strategy might be, how you set
your car up. Practice two is generally quite a good
indicator of how qualifying is going to be because it'll
be similar conditions, the time of the day it's raced,
and everything you've learned you've just come in from a
session before that. In terms of how a race relates
to practice, I mean, it's very rare that you see
(01:32):
anything like that because just the conditions of a race
are different to anything you get in the sport anywhere else.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
So just for clarity during practice, are they all out
there together? Are there fewer cars on the track?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Out?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Does it work?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
So you get an hour an hour to wherever you
can basically do whatever you want. Not all cars will
be on the track at the same time, but that
is a possibility you can do. You know, you control
something with your wing or your tires or you fuel load,
come back into the perch, make a couple of changes,
and then go back out. You've got an hour to
do whatever you.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Want and what each lap is timed. And that's what
we find with these results. Of course, They don't mean
anything to do they but that's how your track lap
times and how were Lillams today.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
So generally at the end, towards the end of a
session you'll you'll have what they'll call a push lap
where you'll just try and set the fastest time. I
thought Liam Lawson was very good today. There was a
very good battle between Isaac Hadjar and Liam. They finished,
you know, a couple of tenths apart each time. Obviously,
this season has basically been the story of Liam being
(02:31):
out driven by Hajjar, and again this is only practice.
We might know what's gonna happen tomorrow in the race,
but for me today it felt as close as it's
been between them, and that I'm reading is a really
good sign because we know that Liam's had a bit
of a knock this year with what happened to him
at Red Bull, and it wasn't going to be enough.
It was going to be a when he got his
confidence back. But the issue is that in that time
Hajar has just really been probably the standout driver on
(02:53):
the whole grid, not just at racing balls.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Do you think that Liam uses that, either openly or
privately as a motivator as well.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I think he's very motivated as is. It's not I've
covered Limb since he was seventeen years old, and he's
always been very aware of the sacrifices that other people
have made to get him to areas, like his parents
sold his house when he was young to fund his
go cuting career and it only gets more expensive after that.
So he knows what's at stake, and that's not just
(03:24):
unique to lem Laws and that's a trait that most
drivers out of New Zealand share because we're not a
very big country. We don't have, you know, the benefactors
that are prepared to put millions of dollars into a
kid to get them to f one. So whether or
not being dropped by Red Bull is just another motivator forum.
I mean, it's probably for him to say and not us. I,
(03:44):
as you've said, are taking these Oh I'm taking these
results with a grain of salt because they are only practiced.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
But I have to go down to nine to find
max for stapping. Is that significant or not?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Red Bull have actually had a very bad run of
Friday practices all season. Yeah, so generally that car is
so temperamental the RB twenty one that only really makes
get anything out of that Friday, they'll try and try
a few things and learn what works and what doesn't work.
They'll churn it up overnight and then the Saturday, so
Sunday morning, our time will be when you really see
(04:16):
what it is and through practice three and into qualifying.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Just while we're on max for step and he collided
with George Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix couple of
weeks ago, issued with three points on his super license,
which basically means he's one more infringement away from a race. Band.
I think he's got two races to avoid that before
some of the points drop off over a twelve month period.
If he were to drop out for a race, who
would take his seat.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
It's very interesting and there's a lot of chat around
who's going to do that. So from the people I've
spoken to, Red Bull don't at the moment have a
clear preference one way or the other out of Liam
Lawson or Isaac Hanjer. It's understood that Liam's experience in
the RB twenty one and combined with Hajjars and experience
in Formula one would mean Lawson is actually slightly ahead
(05:02):
if they did need to make that change. However, the
real mean herring and all this as in Betwel earlier
this week, Avid Limbladd, who is an F two driver
with Red Bull, was given dispensation to get his super
license early. So super license is what you need to
be qualified to get into F one. It's actually sort
of like an anti max for stap and rule that
the fire brought in because of Stappa was in that
car at sixteen, so they brought in the super license
(05:24):
rule that you have to be eighteen to get lim
Blad Scott has at seventeen. Red Bull won't have done
that for no reason. You know, they will very clearly
have a plan. So whether or not that's Limbladd comes
in later this year for a race or two. Here
they're like what Brendan Hartley got when he came in
and would that be at the expensively? And Mawson would
that be expensive? Yuki Sonoda, and then you see Isaac
Canjam move up. It's all a bit musical chairs. So
(05:46):
to answer your question in short, I think in the
unlikely event that Stappan gets banned, I would like to
think Liam Lawson would get another shot, and that seems
to be how the cards are falling at home. But
we just don't know anything could happened over these next
couple of days.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Of course, as you alluded to, and as we all know,
Liam started the season with Red Bull dropped into the
racing ball team. Yuki Sonoda took that seat. How's he going,
not flash?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
And you do feel for Yuki like he is a
good driver, like all these guys, these are I mean,
in theory the twenty best drivers in the world, but
you put anyone next to Max Forstappen and they're just
going to struggle because of the way that team set up.
And like Yuki has become a bit of a figure
of fun for Kiwis, as you know, the guy that
I don't know. As a coping mechanism, we just try
and tear him down to make our guy feel a
bit better. But it's not very nice to see guys
(06:32):
struggle like he started last in Spain, and like we
know he's a better driver than that.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
And in a wider sense. PS Three Norris, the two
McLaren drivers one and two and the driver's standings at
the moment they're they're opening up quite the gap, aren't
they back to for Stappan and then George Russell and
the Mercedes are the McLaren's just faster.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Yeah, I mean there's nowhere around it that they just
have a very good car in combination with two very
good drivers. I then PS three everything year about him.
So pstre raced in Formula two at the same time
as Lin Lawson. The whole point of Formula two as
everything is supposed to bears even as it can be
so that you get things like reverse good races where
just to level the playing field, Oscar Pistree was so
(07:14):
far in front of everyone else in that championship it's
not even funny. So if he isn't the world champion
in a few months time, whilst a few months at
the end of the year, I would be very surprised.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
How often has Liam raced the circuit before?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Never So Formula two and for me three don't really
go to Canada. It's quite expensive to move everything around,
so when you go to places like the Americas in
the middle least, you don't really get the same calendar
sharing that you'd get with F one. So this will
be his first proper race in a single seater at
this track.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
And in terms of the race itself, how challenging is
it to pass? How challenging or not is it to
move up the field If you qualify outside the top ten,
could you be in the top ten during the race?
What's the situation with the track in that regard.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So Canada is quite it's not a I mean, the
way the cars are built now, they're so big, so
overtaking is quite difficult in general. But Canada has three
drs zones where you can open your back wing up
if you're in a one second of the car in
front of it gives you a little bit of boost
to go past them. So Canada's got three of those,
which in theory means it's good for overtaking. However, we
know that as we've seen in places like Imila, in
places like Monica, when Monica's the Lauren to itself. But
(08:17):
overtaking this year hasn't really been at a premium, so
we will just have to wait and see how they go.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
All right, So qualifying nice and high is I mean,
it's it sounds stupid to always, but yeah, always good
to qualify as highup the grit as you can. So
are we looking at Liam in the top ten and
qualifying tomorrow fingers.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Crossed, oh, fingers cross from as always he had. That's
actually been quite a frustration from the season, I think,
because he is generally very good over one lap, but
for whatever reason, something will just go against them and
he's you hear him when he speaks afterwards, and he'll
know exactly what went wrong, and it's just when they
keep piling up like that, Like we saw Monaco when
he when he quified in the top tens, like finally
(08:52):
he had a week end where everything just went his
way and that's when he got his best finished. Like
that's not a coincidence. So if he can have everything
sort of go fall in his favor, then there's no
reason why he can't get a resolve like we saw
Daniel Ricardo last year in that same car qualified fist.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
All right, well, let's hope for similar things for Liam
Lawson tomorrow morning. Thanks for your analysis and your expertise
this afternoon. Alex really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Jess Bliney, Now, thanks mate.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That is Alex Powell. Read him at ensidherold dot co
dot MZ his excellent coverage of Formula One, including Liam Lawson.
So third practice is tomorrow around four to thirty New
Zealand time, that's am, and then qualifying from eight tomorrow morning,
and then we'll find out where Liam is on the
grid for the race itself six o'clock Monday morning, New
Zealand Time.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talk zed B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine
from Newstalk zed B.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Lawson's log two top ten finishers in practice for Formula
ones Canadian Grand Prix. The Key with Racing Balls driver
finished eighth and tenth respectively on the first day of
the race weekend.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It's positive, as close as usual at the moment. Personally,
it's been a fun day. It's a cool track. It's
been a place of once it come to you for
a long time. So just very very close. We need
to keep pushing the limits and finding everybody speed we can.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Qualifying tomorrow morning. The race itself goes at six on
Monday morning. New Zealand time. Let's bring in our Formula
one expert from the New Zealand Herald, Alex Powell. Alex,
thanks for stopping. And how happy will Liam Lawson be
with his day afternoon?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Piney hope you will. I think he will be content
with his day. But it's also you do have to
look at practice with a grain of salt. That you
don't win anything on a Friday.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Tell us about that, because I I am interested to
know how accurate and indicate practice is to the way
that a weekend might play out for somebody.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
So generally, practice one you get to grips with the
track and what your strategy might be, how you set
your car up. Practice two is generally quite a good
indicator of how qualifying is going to be because it'll
be similar conditions, the time of the day it's raced,
and everything you've learned you've just come in from a
session before that. In terms of how a race relates
to practice, I mean, it's very rare that you see
(01:32):
anything like that because just the conditions of a race
are different to anything you get in the sport anywhere else.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
So just for clarity during practice, are they all out
there together? Are there fewer cars on the track?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Out?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Does it work?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
So you get an hour an hour to wherever you
can basically do whatever you want. Not all cars will
be on the track at the same time, but that
is a possibility you can do. You know, you control
something with your wing or your tires or you fuel load,
come back into the perch, make a couple of changes,
and then go back out. You've got an hour to
do whatever you.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Want and what each lap is timed. And that's what
we find with these results. Of course, They don't mean
anything to do they but that's how your track lap
times and how were Lillams today.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
So generally at the end, towards the end of a
session you'll you'll have what they'll call a push lap
where you'll just try and set the fastest time. I
thought Liam Lawson was very good today. There was a
very good battle between Isaac Hadjar and Liam. They finished,
you know, a couple of tenths apart each time. Obviously,
this season has basically been the story of Liam being
(02:31):
out driven by Hajjar, and again this is only practice.
We might know what's gonna happen tomorrow in the race,
but for me today it felt as close as it's
been between them, and that I'm reading is a really
good sign because we know that Liam's had a bit
of a knock this year with what happened to him
at Red Bull, and it wasn't going to be enough.
It was going to be a when he got his
confidence back. But the issue is that in that time
Hajar has just really been probably the standout driver on
(02:53):
the whole grid, not just at racing balls.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Do you think that Liam uses that, either openly or
privately as a motivator as well.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I think he's very motivated as is. It's not I've
covered Limb since he was seventeen years old, and he's
always been very aware of the sacrifices that other people
have made to get him to areas, like his parents
sold his house when he was young to fund his
go cuting career and it only gets more expensive after that.
So he knows what's at stake, and that's not just
(03:24):
unique to lem Laws and that's a trait that most
drivers out of New Zealand share because we're not a
very big country. We don't have, you know, the benefactors
that are prepared to put millions of dollars into a
kid to get them to f one. So whether or
not being dropped by Red Bull is just another motivator forum.
I mean, it's probably for him to say and not us. I,
(03:44):
as you've said, are taking these Oh I'm taking these
results with a grain of salt because they are only practiced.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
But I have to go down to nine to find
max for stapping. Is that significant or not?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Red Bull have actually had a very bad run of
Friday practices all season. Yeah, so generally that car is
so temperamental the RB twenty one that only really makes
get anything out of that Friday, they'll try and try
a few things and learn what works and what doesn't work.
They'll churn it up overnight and then the Saturday, so
Sunday morning, our time will be when you really see
(04:16):
what it is and through practice three and into qualifying.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Just while we're on max for step and he collided
with George Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix couple of
weeks ago, issued with three points on his super license,
which basically means he's one more infringement away from a race. Band.
I think he's got two races to avoid that before
some of the points drop off over a twelve month period.
If he were to drop out for a race, who
would take his seat.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
It's very interesting and there's a lot of chat around
who's going to do that. So from the people I've
spoken to, Red Bull don't at the moment have a
clear preference one way or the other out of Liam
Lawson or Isaac Hanjer. It's understood that Liam's experience in
the RB twenty one and combined with Hajjars and experience
in Formula one would mean Lawson is actually slightly ahead
(05:02):
if they did need to make that change. However, the
real mean herring and all this as in Betwel earlier
this week, Avid Limbladd, who is an F two driver
with Red Bull, was given dispensation to get his super
license early. So super license is what you need to
be qualified to get into F one. It's actually sort
of like an anti max for stap and rule that
the fire brought in because of Stappa was in that
car at sixteen, so they brought in the super license
(05:24):
rule that you have to be eighteen to get lim
Blad Scott has at seventeen. Red Bull won't have done
that for no reason. You know, they will very clearly
have a plan. So whether or not that's Limbladd comes
in later this year for a race or two. Here
they're like what Brendan Hartley got when he came in
and would that be at the expensively? And Mawson would
that be expensive? Yuki Sonoda, and then you see Isaac
Canjam move up. It's all a bit musical chairs. So
(05:46):
to answer your question in short, I think in the
unlikely event that Stappan gets banned, I would like to
think Liam Lawson would get another shot, and that seems
to be how the cards are falling at home. But
we just don't know anything could happened over these next
couple of days.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Of course, as you alluded to, and as we all know,
Liam started the season with Red Bull dropped into the
racing ball team. Yuki Sonoda took that seat. How's he going,
not flash?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
And you do feel for Yuki like he is a
good driver, like all these guys, these are I mean,
in theory the twenty best drivers in the world, but
you put anyone next to Max Forstappen and they're just
going to struggle because of the way that team set up.
And like Yuki has become a bit of a figure
of fun for Kiwis, as you know, the guy that
I don't know. As a coping mechanism, we just try
and tear him down to make our guy feel a
bit better. But it's not very nice to see guys
(06:32):
struggle like he started last in Spain, and like we
know he's a better driver than that.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
And in a wider sense. PS Three Norris, the two
McLaren drivers one and two and the driver's standings at
the moment they're they're opening up quite the gap, aren't
they back to for Stappan and then George Russell and
the Mercedes are the McLaren's just faster.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Yeah, I mean there's nowhere around it that they just
have a very good car in combination with two very
good drivers. I then PS three everything year about him.
So pstre raced in Formula two at the same time
as Lin Lawson. The whole point of Formula two as
everything is supposed to bears even as it can be
so that you get things like reverse good races where
just to level the playing field, Oscar Pistree was so
(07:14):
far in front of everyone else in that championship it's
not even funny. So if he isn't the world champion
in a few months time, whilst a few months at
the end of the year, I would be very surprised.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
How often has Liam raced the circuit before?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Never So Formula two and for me three don't really
go to Canada. It's quite expensive to move everything around,
so when you go to places like the Americas in
the middle least, you don't really get the same calendar
sharing that you'd get with F one. So this will
be his first proper race in a single seater at
this track.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
And in terms of the race itself, how challenging is
it to pass? How challenging or not is it to
move up the field If you qualify outside the top ten,
could you be in the top ten during the race?
What's the situation with the track in that regard.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So Canada is quite it's not a I mean, the
way the cars are built now, they're so big, so
overtaking is quite difficult in general. But Canada has three
drs zones where you can open your back wing up
if you're in a one second of the car in
front of it gives you a little bit of boost
to go past them. So Canada's got three of those,
which in theory means it's good for overtaking. However, we
know that as we've seen in places like Imila, in
places like Monica, when Monica's the Lauren to itself. But
(08:17):
overtaking this year hasn't really been at a premium, so
we will just have to wait and see how they go.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
All right, So qualifying nice and high is I mean,
it's it sounds stupid to always, but yeah, always good
to qualify as highup the grit as you can. So
are we looking at Liam in the top ten and
qualifying tomorrow fingers.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Crossed, oh, fingers cross from as always he had. That's
actually been quite a frustration from the season, I think,
because he is generally very good over one lap, but
for whatever reason, something will just go against them and
he's you hear him when he speaks afterwards, and he'll
know exactly what went wrong, and it's just when they
keep piling up like that, Like we saw Monaco when
he when he quified in the top tens, like finally
(08:52):
he had a week end where everything just went his
way and that's when he got his best finished. Like
that's not a coincidence. So if he can have everything
sort of go fall in his favor, then there's no
reason why he can't get a resolve like we saw
Daniel Ricardo last year in that same car qualified fist.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
All right, well, let's hope for similar things for Liam
Lawson tomorrow morning. Thanks for your analysis and your expertise
this afternoon. Alex really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Jess Bliney, Now, thanks mate.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That is Alex Powell. Read him at ensidherold dot co
dot MZ his excellent coverage of Formula One, including Liam Lawson.
So third practice is tomorrow around four to thirty New
Zealand time, that's am, and then qualifying from eight tomorrow morning,
and then we'll find out where Liam is on the
grid for the race itself six o'clock Monday morning, New
Zealand Time.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talk zed B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.