Liam Lawson revels in 'aggressive' Racing Bulls approach

Liam Lawson has praised Racing Bulls for its "aggressive" approach to F1 weekends this season, following another strong Friday at the British Grand Prix, where he qualified ninth in sprint qualifying at Silverstone.

The New Zealander, who sits 10th in the F1 drivers' championship with 30 points after eight rounds, was pleased with how comfortable the VCARB 03 felt throughout the day, finishing practice in P10 before improving to ninth in the sprint qualifying session, just ahead of team-mate Arvid Lindblad.

"Yeah, it's good. Car is really good. It's been good all day," Lawson said after sprint qualifying. "Honestly, we've barely changed anything, so that's something that's been really good for us recently.

"We've come to these weekends and been quite aggressive, and it's been working. So, it's a good starting position for tomorrow."

The 2026 power unit regulations have added a fresh layer of complexity to energy management, particularly during qualifying laps.

At Silverstone, where cooler conditions made tyre preparation even more of a balancing act, Lawson outlined the difficulty of managing energy deployment at what is an extremely energy-poor circuit.

"It's definitely tough," Lawson responded when asked how difficult it has been to prepare the power unit's battery for a push lap.

"It wasn't super warm today, so you actually need the energy to put the temperature in the tyres, but you can't obviously spend too much of it, because you don't have enough to start your lap.

"And then through your lap, as well, as we're getting faster, we're just running out of energy, so it's been very different here, for sure, compared to some of the tracks previously.

"But I think for our sake, the team's done a great job, and we've been in a good place today."

Sprint points a tall order

Racing Bulls have been up with Alpine as the best of the midfield in 2026, sitting sixth in the constructors' standings on 44 points, comfortably clear of Haas in seventh.

But the gap to the leading quartet of Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull remains significant, and with all eight of those drivers qualifying ahead of him, Lawson was realistic about his sprint race prospects.

"If they all finish, probably not, which sucks," the 24-year-old said when it was put to him that it will be tricky to fight for sprint points with the big four teams ahead of him and Lindblad.

"But for sure, I'll try; we'll try and get a good start and see where we can get in the first few corners, but I think pace-wise, normally in the long run, they're a bit ahead of us anyway, so we're very focused on qualifying tomorrow and the race on Sunday."