Liam Lawson expresses surprise at unexpected 2026 F1 discovery

Liam Lawson has explained how he was surprised by the new generation of F1 car not being as physically easy as he expected.

With the cars being narrower and smaller for 2026, corner speeds have reduced, with the need to harvest energy before long straights also reducing the speeds for drivers.

However, although the speeds are reduced and the G-forces are not as high, the reduced speeds do mean that drivers spend more time in corners. 

Owing to the reduced speeds, Lawson initially felt the 2026 cars would be easier to cope with, but explained how he wrong with that assessment.

"To be fair, even though you're slower through the corners, you spend more time in the corners," Lawson told media, including RacingNews365. 

"It is still hard on the neck, so I was expecting it to be a lot easier, but it is actually not that different. 

"These cars are unlike anything I've ever driven; they're a very, very new style of driving, and it doesn't relate to much else."

When asked about how the new F1 machines relate to F2, Lawson felt the idiosyncrasies of the 2026 cars actually push the two categories even further apart.

"Formula 1 has always been extremely fast, and it never really related to F2, anyway," he said.

"So I think the gap from F2 to F1 was always too big, and it is not that it is smaller this year, it's that Formula 1 is slightly slower, but very different to drive, so maybe it relates even less."