Liam Lawson sides with F1 rival: 'If I was him I'd be pissed'

Liam Lawson has sided with F1 rival Alex Albon following the release to the public of the driving standards guidelines by the FIA.

Lawson and Albon were involved in a Turn 1 incident in the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this month that resulted in the Williams driver breaking a front wing on his car, as well as incurring a 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Albon was rightly annoyed at the situation, believing he had done nothing wrong. The guidelines, however, outline why a driver is punished in such circumstances as they are seen as the aggressor in making a move around the outside, even if they are pushed off the track by the driver on the defensive.

As Albon noted in discussing the guidelines following their public release, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, he said: "I don't like how we're racing at the moment. Barcelona, Turn 1 was a good example of that.

"If the other car squeezes you off, releases a brake pedal and gives you no space to go, it's true it's their corner.

"But at the point you've committed so late into the corner, the only thing you can do is to exit the track and take a cut off."

Albon maintains there are "grey areas" in the guidelines which still need addressing.

In Barcelona, Lawson's on-track defence fulfilled the criteria of the regulations. However, it is a frustrating manoeuvre to those on the receiving end, and in Albon's case, being handed a penalty when he was effectively forced off the track as he had nowhere to go otherwise the collision would have been far worse.

Asked whether he saw Albon's point of view, Lawson, speaking in his media session ahead of this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix, replied: "Yeah, 100 per cent. If I was him, I'd be totally pissed, because it's exactly what we're doing.

"It's the incident I had with Fernando [Alonso] in Miami, where it ended up with him in the wall, which was never my intention. The fact that I had the ability to be slightly pushed off, go off the track and come back on, creates that issue.

"The fact that the regulations are like that, he knew he had to release the brake and get his nose just in front of me at the apex to stop my outside overtake from being possible and from me being given room.

"I've been on the receiving end and on the other side of it, and I totally understand it. In a race, we're going to do what we have to."