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March 15, 2025 • 11 mins

Belief that Liam Lawson's tough couple of days in the Formula 1 Grand Prix could be turned around in Melbourne in the race proper this afternoon.

F1 journalist Chris Medland says wet weather could be a leveller as Lawson prepares to start 18th.

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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalks edb SO.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Liam Lawson will make his full time Red Ball Formula
One debut from eighteenth on the Grid this afternoon after
being eliminated in the opening qualifying session for the Australian
Grand Prix and Melbourne yesterday. He struggled for pace and
Friday's two practices after clipping the wall on the first
and then a power unit issue limited him to just
two warm up laps in yesterday's final practice.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Liam Lawson's in real trouble going into qualifying here. He's
done a sum total of two laps and if he
thought it was a battery recharge issue, then it's turned
out to be a larger power unit problem. The team
are confirming that it's a pneumatic problem on the air
system of the power units and there are FIR six

(00:57):
eight mechanics working on this car. At the moment, the
floor's coming off, the engine covers are all off. Lawson
has long since taken his crash helmet off. I think's
might well be out of the session and that would
be a real hammer blow going into the first qualifying session.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
Of the year.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
For Liam laws Indeed, he went into qualifying Liam Lawson
on the back foot failed to advance out of qualifier
one after twice having to abandon qualifying lap attempts after
going off the track at Melbourne's Albert Park Circuit. So
Lando Norris will start on poll with his McLaren teammate
Australian Oscar Pustree second, and Liam Lawson's Red Bull teammate

(01:33):
and four time defending world champion Max forstap In third
on the grid. The race underway at five this afternoon,
New Zealand time. Let's get you to Melbourne for a preview.
Bring in highly respected and experienced freelance Formula one journalist
and broadcaster Chris Medland. You can read him at racer
dot com and also in Motorsport Magazine and hear him

(01:55):
on Sirius xf XM radio in the United States. Chris,
thanks for joining us across New Zealand to preview the
Australian Grand Prix. Let's start with Liam Lawson. Can you
summarize the last two days of William Lawson's life for us?

Speaker 4 (02:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (02:11):
I certainly can, and I to be honest, I say
pretty unfortunate. There was a bit of a learning process
for him this weekend. He's never driven on this track
in Melbourne. Albert Parks started toasting Formula two races recently,
but Liam wasn't racing in Formula two when that happened.
So all the rookies coming into F one have at
least raced here in junior categories. Liam hasn't, so on
the first day he was trying to just get up

(02:31):
to speed and then the track, and then yesterday for qualifying,
he was looking to really kind of ramp things up,
but they had a car issue that was nothing to
do with him, to do with the power unit, and
that meant that he didn't run a tall in the
final practice session, so he was very unprepared for qualifying.
He was on a decent enough lap that should have
helped him advance a bit further, but then he had
a bit of a moment, ended up going off and

(02:52):
missed out early on. So that's kind of a byproduct
of the lack of running he's had compared to other
people because it's just so competitive this season.

Speaker 4 (02:59):
So yeah, pretty tough couple of days for him.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
So if within extrapa light that forward, he's had very
little experience, I think just for two laps across the
three practice seasons, and as you say, qualifying didn't go
as way yesterday either. So how big a disadvantage will
that be for the race proper this afternoon.

Speaker 5 (03:17):
It would be a very big one in the sense
if it was dry. But right now I'm talking to
you and it is hammering down with rain. It's going
to be a fully wet race as it stands, which
would be perfect for him, he said, Actually he would
love some rain because even though it'd be difficult for
him starting where he is if it was dry, he's
looking at it pragmatically. Yes, his first race with Red Bull,
he just needs to gain some experience, and he might

(03:37):
not be able to move forward very quickly. It's quite
tough to overtake care in the dry, but that would
still give him a full race distance to try and
really get under his belt and just start to build
that experience up. In the wet, all bets are off,
So this is exactly what he was hoping for and
looking for, was something that would really spice things up.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
So his Red Bull teammate four time defending champion makes
the step and he'll start from third on the grid.
What did you make of verse last couple of days, To.

Speaker 5 (04:02):
Be honest, very impressive because the Red Bull didn't look
great when we went to pre season testing in Bahrain
a few weeks ago. It looked like there's a lot
of work for Red Bull to do, and even on
Friday in the practice sessions that we were talking about,
it didn't look like it was going to be competing
at the very front end. It looked like it was
one of the top four cars, but maybe a step
behind the McLaren and the Ferrari, and even the Mercedes
could look quite good. Overnight Friday into Saturday, red Bull

(04:26):
made a really good step with that car, made a
lot of good progress obviously with the work they've done
back in their factory, and Max was right in the
mix of pole position up until the end of qualifying,
and at that point McLaren just had a little bit
more in hand to bring out in terms of performance.
So third place to him on the grid is probably
exceeding expectations. And he's another one who will be walking
in here today with a huge smile in his face

(04:47):
with wet weather, because he really is one of the
best wet weather drivers in the sport, and he's producing
brilliant performances in the wet and this is a level
of when it's raining, it's down much more to driver
skilled than car performance. So yeah, we could see a
bit of an epic race.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Looking forward to George Russell and the Mercedes alongside Mex
for step and on the grid. They've got a bit
of history these two, haven't they they have.

Speaker 5 (05:07):
I'm glad you brought that up because I hadn't mentioned
it on the Max section, But yeah, they had a
pretty big bit of beef towards end the last season,
Max was upset that George had essentially tried to get
him a penalty at the penultimate race of the season
and actually successfully got him a penalty the Max felt
was undeserved and he didn't like the way George was
acting in the steward's room. So then Max went and
told George what he thought of him and what he

(05:28):
would do if they were racing side by side on track.
George didn't like that either, so this war of words
started and it really carried over got very strong at
the final race in Abi Dabbi. Obviously, they've had an
off season where they've not been racing against each other,
but they still both said, you know, we haven't spoken,
we're not bothered about being friends. So yeah, those two
will to will into turn one. That is definitely worth watching.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Looking forward to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastre as I
say one and two on the grid. Even though the
powers that be at McLaren seemed to be downplaying how
much faster they are than everybody else, how much faster
are they than everybody else.

Speaker 5 (06:02):
Well, based on qualifying yesterday, about a quarter of a second,
if not a little bit more, which in modern one
is actually a big gap. Gaps used to be way
bigger than that, and it used to be kind of
less competitive across the field. You'd have some teams that
were a big step ahead of others. But everything's been
so close. We've been seeing a difference of like a
tenth or two here and there. But yeah, Lando put
it on pole by nearly zero point four seconds, so

(06:22):
nearly half a second over maxistappening third as the first
non McLaren car, and that was a really impressive performance.
But you're right, the team are always going to talk
it down anyway. They don't want to build pressure on
themselves by saying, oh, we're the best team with the
fastest car, because then if you don't win, you look stupid.
But at the same time, not only McLaren, but Ferrari
themselves and the Total Wolf yesterday, we're all saying they

(06:44):
expected more from Ferrari and they just think Ferrari got
it wrong so far this weekend. Ferrari had very competitive
going into qualifying, like they could get close to McLaren,
but they didn't manage to do so, and they ended
up seven to eight on the grid. So it seems
to be that they dropped the ball a little bit
and that's made the gap look even bigger. So the
good thing about the Formula One nowadays is you go
from one track to another and the pecking on of

(07:04):
changes and it means you do not know for certain
going to each venue who's going to be best.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
You mentioned they're the Ferraris of Charlie Clare in Lewis
Hamilton seventh and Night, as you wrote in one of
your pieces that certainly was not in the script. He
talked there about them dropping the ball what actually happened.

Speaker 5 (07:20):
So essentially, yes, there was an extremely hot day, but
there wasn't a huge amount of sunshine actually for a
lot of it, so we had very high temperatures and
teams were trying to understand how to get the tires
working in those temperatures. But when the sunshine then disappeared
when it was out, it would raise the track temperature
quite a lot. When cloud cover hid it, even though
the air temperature stayed high, the track temperaure would drop,
and both drivers suggested that the team didn't really react

(07:43):
to that very well. They kind of stuck to their
plan from before qualifying and didn't adapt to the changing
track temperatures like others did, so that way they didn't
get the best performance out the tires. And the tires
are obviously the only thing touching the track to give
your grip, so if you don't get those working properly,
you're going to be in trouble. So yeah, they just
sounded like they didn't quite react properly. But but they'll
dig into the data after this weekend and see what

(08:03):
they can learn for the next race in China.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
And Yuki Sono and the Racing Bulls caras fifth on
the grid, was that the biggest surprise Chris for you
how high up the grid.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
He is it was.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (08:15):
I actually hosted an event with UK on Friday night
and he'd been fourth in the second practice session that day,
so he was very popular because he was looking like
he was sept for a good weekend and he joked
that he could maybe go and get on the podium
or something, but even he was saying, you know, top
five of being credible and a stretch, you know, it
would be a surprise to get up there, and in reality,
the racing balls car that he drives that no stage

(08:36):
had really looked that strong until we got here and
did second practice, so that did come out of the
blue a little bit, and certainly to stay up there
across two days was very impressive. He did say he
thinks he got a little bit of a toe at
one point as well, a bit of a slipstream that
helped his final lap time and got him up to
fifth place. But it was a very strong performance and
to be honest, Yuki's probably one of those coming here
today now going why is it raining? He would want

(08:56):
it to be a nice, boring, dry race and give
him a chance to staying there. But he's certainly he
would have felt he had a point to prove because
Liam Lawson was given the Red Bull Sea over Yuki
Red Bullsalm will tension in Lim and the way he races,
but Uk then is trying to prove them wrong. And
he's a really likable character that you know, he got
on very well with Liam. He gets on very well
with a lot of people in this paddock, and that
was a popular start. I think to see him at

(09:18):
least perform well, but people want to see Liam doing
the same, all.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Right, Chris. To finish, you've mentioned the rain a number
of times in rightly so because it is going to
play huge part today. But how big a part and
what do you predict for this rice given the weather
conditions that are expected.

Speaker 5 (09:35):
Yeah, if it stays wet like this, I think we're
going to have a bit of chaos. Actually this is
a semi temporary circuit. We're in Albert Park, so you
know the roads are not always the highest gript for
in wet weather. There's a lot of painted lines for
normal road markings that can get very slippery. So I
think we'll see a few moments, a few incidents, you know,
drivers going off and I would put money probably right

(09:57):
now on Max the staff and winning the way he
adapts to these conditions, just is a level above most
other people right now. In his prime, Lewis Hamilton would
be in that mix too, but he's obviously just moved
teams first time with Ferrari. He still needs to learn
a lot about that car, how it reacts, how it operates.
So yeah, I think it's going to be one where
I would say Max right now is my favorite. From
third on the grid, the two McLaren drivers should be

(10:18):
the favorites. They're starting one and two and they have
potentially the quiggest car, but that advantage will be lessened
by the wet weather. And obviously they're fighting each other
as well as fighting Max, which is always a tough
kind of line to tread. Because you're trying not to
cause an instant with your teammate. You maybe leave a
bit more margin, but that leads a bit of uncertainty sometimes,
and I think it's going to be a really, really

(10:39):
exciting either way.

Speaker 4 (10:40):
But yeah, i'd probably lean more towards the staff and
now that it's.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Wet, all right, Just one more very quick question, Liam Lawson,
what does success look like for him? You know, eighteenth
on the grid. Anything higher than eighteen is that succeeds.

Speaker 5 (10:52):
Oh absolutely, and I would expect him to finish hard
than eighteenth if he sees the checkered flag, And to
be honest, that's how I constitute success to him. It
would be just get that experience under his belt. If
it's raining for time to drive a red Bull in
wet conditions, you know this will be valuable experience moving forward.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
If it's not.

Speaker 5 (11:07):
As we've been talking about, he didn't have a huge
amount of time in the car the rest of this weekend,
so he's missed out on some running and just to
build up that experience bank so that he can make
a step forward at the next race, and he'll need
to do that gradually over a number of races.

Speaker 4 (11:19):
So just to see the checker flag.

Speaker 5 (11:20):
Make sure he's not involved in any major incidents. Being wet,
I think it means there'll be a lot going on,
and if he does see the finish then it means
he's probably going to be having a lot of action
to deal with and moving forward. So yeah, I just
think just make sure he keeps his head down and
keep his nose clean, and that would be a good
race for him.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Appreciate your outstanding analysis. Chris, thanks so much for joining
us across New Zealand today.

Speaker 4 (11:41):
Not a problem, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Thanks for joining us, Chris Chriss Midland Deer live from Melbourne.
Where's you heard? It's hammering down with rain, which is
going to have a huge say in what happens this afternoon.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to news talks it'd be weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on I Hard Radio.
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