Liam Lawson urged to 'pull it together' after tough Racing Bulls return

Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer has urged Liam Lawson to "pull it together", believing he is on the cusp of a breakthrough with the team.

It has been a tough season for Lawson, who realised his dream of racing with Red Bull when he was promoted over the winter to be team-mate to Max Verstappen, only to be rapidly demoted after just two grands prix.

On his return to Racing Bulls, Lawson has scored points in just one of his seven races after finishing a superb eighth in the Monaco Grand Prix. In contrast, however, team-mate Isack Hadjar has claimed points in five races over the same period.

New Zealander Lawson has stated recently that to extract results from a race weekend, he knows perfect execution is required in all areas. After Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, he made clear that he has to improve in qualifying.

It was a point also raised by Bayer, who recognises that Lawson's results would be much improved if he could join Hadjar in Q3, as the Frenchman has achieved in the last three races.

Suggested to Bayer by RacingNews365 that Lawson was on the cusp of delivering regularly for the team, he replied: "Absolutely.

"That's exactly what we see. In terms of pace, he's right there. You saw in Monaco, in some of the sessions, he was right there.

"I saw over the weekend [in Spain] he's got these sectors where he's showing some brilliant stuff, and he just needs to pull it together.

"We saw on lap one, it was a bit of a scramble here and there. If he could just get into that top group, he would certainly have the pace, and he would move forward, I'm sure."

Racing Bulls bounce back from Spanish 'belly flop'

At this relatively early stage of the season, the triple-header of Imola, Monaco, and Spain was a tough one for all of the teams.

Bayer felt, however, his team improved race by race, particularly after introducing an upgrade for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, and a new front wing in Spain, 80 per cent of which was related to the new technical regulations, with the remaining 20 per cent focused on aerodynamic performance.

Hadjar scored points in all three races, and whilst Lawson missed out in Spain, finishing 11th, Bayer could not have been happier with his the team overall delivered.  

"We went into it knowing that it was going to be tough for many reasons because we had a small upgrade for the home race, which was the first test, and it worked," said Bayer. "I was very happy that we didn't break the car, very happy that we found a bit of performance.

"Monaco was, obviously, a highlight for the team, because we got away with some points, and then Spain was probably the highlight as such, because we were quite concerned about the track, because last year we produced our belly flop."

On that occasion, the two drivers at the time, Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo, finished a wretched 19th and 15th respectively, and a lap down.

Bayer added on this year's race, "It's a proper race track with everything, with very hot track temperatures, and yet you saw that the pace of the car was very, very good.

"So, overall, very happy. It's a lot easier to go through a triple header if you're on an upward trajectory than the other way around."