Liam Lawson on F1's 'Unknown' Pecking Order After Racing Bulls Test

Liam Lawson says the true competitive order of the 2025 Formula 1 grid remains a deep 'unknown' following Racing Bulls' final pre-season shakedown test in Barcelona, despite the team completing a successful and reliable three-day program. The New Zealander emphasized that while his team has made significant gains, understanding where they stand relative to rivals will take time as all teams develop their radically new cars under fresh technical regulations.

Why it matters:

The 2025 season introduces a major reset with new chassis and aerodynamic rules, making pre-season testing data more opaque than usual. A team's initial reliability and ability to gather laps, as Racing Bulls has done, is a critical first step, but translating that into performance predictions is exceptionally difficult this year, setting up an unpredictable start to the championship.

The details:

• Lawson completed 64 laps in the morning session on the final day of testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, part of a program he described as "pretty strong in terms of reliability."
• He stated the VCARB 02 is in a "much better place" than at the start of the test on Monday, a crucial box ticked for the team's initial development phase.
• The core challenge highlighted is the parallel development race: "We are obviously making big gains but so is everybody else," Lawson noted, acknowledging the moving target of competitiveness.
• With teams running very different car concepts and programs in private testing, direct performance comparisons are virtually impossible, leaving the pecking order shrouded in mystery.

What's next:

The veil will only begin to lift at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. Until then, teams will analyze their own data intensely, with the focus remaining on internal learning and optimization. For Racing Bulls and Lawson, the priority is continuing to improve the car's understanding and performance, turning their reliable test foundation into points when the real competition begins under the lights in Sakhir.