Liam Lawson explains major Racing Bulls dilemma after failed Brazil experiment

Liam Lawson has explained the dilemma his Racing Bulls team face with its Sao Paulo Grand Prix set-up as rain is forecast to hit Interlagos.

Lawson finished the first session on Friday in 10th place, but slipped back to 13th in FP2, behind team-mate Arvid Lindblad as the team experimented with a set-up direction on the VCARB03 machine, which ultimately proved fruitless, as it induced too much understeer.

However, with rain forecast to hit Brazil for Sunday's race, drivers must carry the set-up they use in qualifying into the race, meaning what set-up might be best for the dry conditions of FP3 and qualifying, as currently forecast, would not translate into the race.

Reflecting on his day, Lawson explained the dilemma. 

"We started a little bit stronger this morning, and then we tried something that didn't really work in FP2, and when it got a lot colder, the stuff we changed was in the opposite direction to that, so it didn't really help," Lawson explained.

"We'll probably go back on that. I think we had a better car [in FP1], so we'll try to start with something similar [in FP3], and then we'll see what happens with the weather because it is probably going to rain."

Looking ahead to qualifying, Lawson spoke of how tough it was to prepare the tyres for a lap, given the cold temperatures.

"Putting the lap together and basically doing a good job, I think it's very, very tough here," he said.

"For the tyres, the laps are really short for warm-up, so we're struggling to get everything properly ready for Turn 1. 

"Any traffic queuing in the pit lane on track can really, really affect Turn 1, so it's going to be interesting, especially Q1 when everybody's on track together. 

"But I mean, the bigger question mark is going to be the rain."

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Lawson reflects on Friday

Then, when asked if the FP1 balance before the failed FP2 changes, would translate into a strong foundation, Lawson agreed.

"I think we're pretty surprised by how much of an effect what we changed had because the car was probably one of the worst balances we've had this season, or at least in the recent races in FP2," he said.

"But a big factor is that when the track temperature comes down, we just had so much understeer in the car, so we'll try and revert on that [for Saturday].

"But obviously, we can't change anything drastically because if it rains, you need to have a good car in the rain as well."