Helmut Marko pinpoints Liam Lawson’s ‘wrong decision’ during preseason testing

Liam Lawson made multiple changes to the RB21 chassis during pre-season testing which led to his mediocre performance.

Helmut Marko pinpoints Liam Lawson’s ‘wrong decision’ during preseason testing

Liam Lawson and Helmut Marko (via Red Bull)

Red Bull has shown a decent improvement with the RB21 challenger. Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson participated in pre-season testing and posted solid lap times. However, Lawson spun out on the first day, bringing out a red flag. Helmut Marko has now weighed in on the Kiwi’s ‘wrong decision’ that led to the latter’s woeful outing in the pre-season test.

Liam Lawson‘s performance during the second session of the first day of testing was mediocre at best. Following the spin-out incident, Lawson could only come out as eighth fastest at the end of the day. Max Verstappen on the other hand performed much better and finished second on the last day of testing.

YouTube video

Helmut Marko noted that Lawson did a good job in the test session overall. The Austrian highlighted that the 23-year-old couldn’t gain much ground after switching to medium compound and changing some settings in his car. Marko labeled this change as the ‘wrong decision’ that caused the Kiwi to gain only one-tenths as compared to other’s massive gain.

FS Video

Did a good job. He just couldn’t gain when he changed from hard to medium. I think he also changed something on the car, which didn’t work, but inside it was logical that it was a wrong decision. So everybody was gaining three to five tenths and he just gained one-tenth.

Helmut Marko told the Dutch Media at the Bahrain testing.

Helmut Marko delivers a short verdict on Liam Lawson vs Sergio Perez

Sergio Perez‘s woeful performances and ultimate departure from Red Bull enabled Liam Lawson to gain a seat at Red Bull. This means that Lawson must one-up the predecessor to retain his seat in the future. Following the culmination of the pre-season test, Helmut Marko compared Lawson to Perez.

Sergio Perez and Liam Lawson
Sergio Perez and Liam Lawson (via IMAGO)

Marko didn’t hesitate to claim that Lawson was already far more enthusiastic than Perez over his career at Red Bull. This means that the 23-year-old is off to a good start and must maintain a similar trajectory of development through the season.

Yes. He’s far more enthusiastic.

Helmut Marko noted.

The final year of the ground-effect era is set to remain extremely exciting, especially at the forefront. Red Bull seems to have somewhat improved the pace as compared to the previous season. Hence, multiple teams seem ready for championship contention.