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Liam Lawson is wary of being punished at the Australian Grand Prix if his Racing Bulls get the delicate balance in energy settings incorrect.

The Albert Park track will be one of the toughest circuits on the calendar for energy harvesting, owing to its long straights and lack of heavy braking zones, which can be used to force energy back into the batteries.

As such, the pre-determined engine settings team will use in the grand prix are more crucial than ever to not leave their drivers vulnerable to attack and unable to defend, especially on the near flat out blast from Turn 6, through the sweeps of Turns 9 and 10 and into the Turn 11 braking zone.

In practice, New Zealander Lawson, celebrating the nearest event he has to a home race, felt that his Racing Bulls machine was quick to settle into a rhythm, but that a 'punishment' could await if the team got its calculations wrong.

"It was a pretty decent day, we completed pretty much everything we wanted to, and learned a lot from it as well," Lawson explained after a pair of 13th-place finishes in the two sessions.

"It is promising, but we still have a lot of work to do, and we'll analyse overnight, but there is definitely more I'm going to have to learn.

"There's a lot more we have to do behind the wheel, like driving the car, which is quite busy, and there are a few new things we have to make sure we are doing correctly.

"To be honest, it doesn't feel like we have to do a huge amount. The balance isn't miles away, which is a really good sign to come out with a decent car, but obviously, everyone is going to be progressing quite quickly, so we need to do the same.

"On a track like this, it is very challenging, because this is one of the hardest tracks on energy, and on the long runs and even in short runs, if you get it slightly wrong, it is very punishing on lap-time, so it is definitely something we're trying to optimise.

"We think we've done a good job, but there is more to optimise.

"We were trying a lot of different things throughout the runs, making switch changes, and we had a lot of VSC practice, so restarts, practice starts, pit-stops, exits, entries, it was good to try them all."