Liam Lawson shares major Racing Bulls discovery after 'big difficulty'

Liam Lawson has shared how he began to discover a trend previously only affecting the top F1 teams on his Racing Bulls car.

So far in 2026, the balance between protecting the battery and flat-out attacking in qualifying has been a topic of major discussion, with new rules in place for Miami to try and ensure the problem is rectified. 

New Zealander Lawson felt that, owing to the Racing Bulls machine having less downforce than the front-running cars, such a problem was not a big issue but the fine balancing act over the course of a lap had began to expose itself as the team brought upgrades in Japan. 

"I think the main thing here is that there is quite a big difference, and a balance between how much you extract performance-wise through the corners, on the throttle," Lawson told media, including RacingNews365. 

"Especially when it comes to qualifying versus how much battery you are using, and that has been the big difficulty for us as drivers to get around this year.

"Quite often, you end up going faster through the corners and then slower over the lap because you've used more battery and finding that balance is quite difficult.

"For us in our car, it is definitely less of a topic than other teams, especially at the top, but the top teams are always going to be struggling with that more because they've got more downforce and are just a bit quicker.

"But it is definitely something that as we get quicker, we are finding it more, and I personally think that in Japan, it was becoming more of a topic."