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Liam Lawson was left disappointed not to end his run of cameo F1 appearances for Scuderia AlphaTauri on a high at the Qatar Grand Prix.
The New Zealander finished 17th in the race, the last of the classified finishers, after a tough weekend.
Lawson spun out of the F1 Sprint on Saturday evening in Lusail before being boxed out at the start and struggling for grip in the grand prix proper.
With Daniel Ricciardo expected to return to the Scuderia AlphaTauri drive for the United States Grand Prix, it’s likely Lawson’s final F1 appearance until 2025.
“Obviously you want to go out on a high, so this is pretty tough to finish off on,” the 22-year-old said.
“It’s just something really to look into.
“Obviously the first couple of races went really good, we were building up, and then this weekend I think we just struggled.”
Scuderia AlphaTauri lacked pace across the weekend; Yuki Tsunoda in the other car finished only 15th after being 12th in the Sprint which saw five retirements, including Lawson.
On top of that, a lack of experience at the venue and with the car, coupled with the Sprint format, served only to add to the degree of difficulty for the New Zealander.
“The Sprint weekend make it extra tough,” he admitted.
“Yesterday was completely my mistake and then today, obviously there’s definitely things that we’ll look into that I could probably improve on, which I’d like to find out.
“But in general, I think we just didn’t have the speed anyway.”
Having started 17th, Lawson dropped two spots on the opening lap.
He then pitted under the Safety Car for Lewis Hamilton’s retirement, a strategy that also failed to net positive results.
“We had a good start next to [Lance] Stroll and [he] just didn’t really see me, so swiped across the front of me,” Lawson explained.
“And then I lost like two more spots, so it was obviously pretty frustrating there but, as I said, even if we made those spots, really, we didn’t have the speed today.”
Though not expected to drive given Ricciardo’s pending return, Lawson will be on hand at the Circuit of The Americas in two weeks’ time.
From there, he’ll travel to Japan for the Super Formula finale at Suzuka, where he is in with a shot of the title.
