Liam Lawson vs. Red Bull Tech: How the Rookie Tackled F1 Practice One

Kiwi Liam Lawson kept it clean during his debut appearance in the #30 RB21 for Red Bull Racing at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. In the first practice session at a track, he’s never driven.

The team tested both medium and soft tyres during the practice session. After several flying laps, Lawson’s car returned to the pit garage due to minor floor damage. Australian rookie and Alpine driver Jack Doohan also suffered floor damage, requiring a visit to his pit garage.

Lawson made soft contact with the wall at the entry to Turn 9, brushing it. However, this does not explain the damage to the car’s floor.

The damage was likely caused by the outside kerbs of the Albert Park Circuit, as slow-motion replays showed debris flying off cars and sparks coming from the underbody of the cars as they went over the kerbs, finding those track limits.

During the practice session, F1TV technical analyst Sam Collins talked about both Red Bull cars.

“Both Red Bull drivers struggled with their cars, especially Max Verstappen. Red Bull has been playing around since pre-season testing with different elements of the car, including the floor,” said Collins.

“Red Bull introduced a new specification floor coming into testing; Max Verstappen really didn’t get on with it; he had a few problems with that. They’ve also changed the engine cover for this race; note the little down-washing element at the back of the bodywork, which is new for Melbourne.

“They played around with some of those sections during pre-season testing. The other thing that everyone has been talking about is the nose and front wing setup: a shorter nose they introduced in testing and a new front wing setup.

“Neither of these seem to be fully gelled for Verstappen or Lawson. They are fighting that car a little bit, still trying to find the car’s sweet spot. There’s definitely more to come from Red Bull.”

During the first practice session for the highly anticipated season opener, there were two red flags. The first red flag was for gravel on track after Jack Doohan went wide, dropping two wheels into the gravel, resulting in a considerable amount of gravel settling on the racing line.

The second red flag was caused by Haas Driver Oliver Bearman going wide into the gravel. Bearman lifted as he came out of the gravel, dropping the front left tyre onto the grass. This resulted in Bearman losing control of the car and making heavy contact with the wall. He initially hit the wall front first before the rear slid across and made heavy contact with the wall. The car then slid across the track and stopped on the opposite side.

With 10 minutes to go, the session was restarted. Lawson and Verstappen tested the soft tyres for the remainder of the session. Verstappen was currently third on the leaderboard, 0.295s off practice leader Carlos Sainz, now driving for Williams. At the same time, Lawson was down the leaderboard in 14th, 1.367s off Sainz.

Mercedes driver George Russell dropped a wheel into the grass and spun on Turn 4 during the session’s final minute, resulting in a brief yellow flag. Russell had to act evasive, locking up and narrowly missing the wall. Russell successfully got the car going again and drove to the chequered flag.

Sainz led the session with a 1.17.401s lap until the final minute, which saw McLaren driver Lando Norris go 0.149s faster, topping the Practice 1 leaderboard and setting the pace at 1.17.252s. Lawson finished the session off strong in 16th place with a 1:18.455s lap, only 0.759s off teammate and four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen.

Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar was the top rookie in Practice 1, finishing the session in 9th. With a commendable effort, Sainz pushed his Williams car into 2nd place. It was a great start to the weekend for the Williams team, with teammate Alex Albon also showing good pace and finishing the session in the 6th.

Practice 2 is later tonight at 18:00 NZT, with Practice 3 at 14:30 NZT Saturday and Qualifying at 18:00 NZT Saturday evening.

Full results – FIA Formula 1 – Practice One

Header Image: Mark Thompson/Getty Images