Oscar Piastri believes Liam Lawson could not have endured a more difficult F1 debut than the one he was subjected to with the Dutch Grand Prix.
After it was confirmed Daniel Ricciardo would miss the remainder of the weekend with a broken hand sustained from a crash in second practice at Zandvoort, Lawson was thrown in at the deep end with AlphaTauri.
The New Zealander was unable to get an initial feel for the AT04 as final practice and qualifying on Saturday were run in the wet, leading to him starting from last on the grid.
Even then, the conditions conspired against Lawson as rain started to fall at the end of the first lap, resulting in a chaotic wet-dry-wet race.
The 21-year-old at least brought the car home in one piece, finishing 13th of the 17 classified, albeit gaining two positions late on as team-mate Yuki Tsunoda served a five-second penalty for causing a collision, and Mercedes’ George Russell sustaining a puncture.
As a fellow rookie, and former rival in F3 and F2 in 2020 and 2021 respectively, Piastri was impressed.
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“Fair play to him, he did a good job, had everything thrown at him,” said Piastri, a remark Lawson also made in his post-race comments.
“I’ve raced against him before, and he’s always been a tough competitor.
“But yes, as a first F1 race, I would be amazed if he finds too many races harder than that.”
Lawson also earned the praise of his team’s head of vehicle performance, Guillaume Dezoteux, who felt he adapted remarkably well to the circumstances in which he found himself, and the conditions that were demanding for all, not just for a young driver making his debut.
“Liam did a very good job, learning about the car and adapting to the conditions, which were constantly evolving,” said Dezoteux.
“He made no mistakes and was able to build up the pace on dry tyres, which he was driving on for the first time in our car.”
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