Liam Lawson has responded to Carlos Sainz’s criticism in the media following their Dutch Grand Prix clash, claiming that he doesn’t really understand why the Williams driver was upset about the situation.
The pair clashed at Turn 1 during a safety car restart at Zandvoort. As Sainz went around the outside of the Racing Bulls driver, Lawson collided with the front-right of the Williams. As a result, Sainz was handed a 10-second penalty and two penalty points on his superlicence.
Sainz branded the penalty as a “complete joke” after the race and visited the stewards to discuss it further, although no changes were made.
“The regulations are written as they are,” Lawson explained to the media at Monza. “So, as drivers, we all know that. Sometimes we don’t agree with it, or sometimes we feel like it doesn’t feel right. And I had it in cases this year where I tried to make overtakes around the outside of cars and had my wheels even further alongside than Carlos did, and still wasn’t given space. And I always felt like it wasn’t fair, but it’s how the rules are.
“So, obviously, as drivers we’re going to try and maximise them. And the incident, that’s why it was his fault. That’s why he got a penalty. I don’t know why I was deemed as being aggressive when he was the car overtaking me. I was just defending. I think if the incident was my fault, I would have got a penalty. So, to me it’s pretty clear.”
In addition to criticising the stewards for imposing the penalty, Sainz took aim at Lawson.
“But with Liam, it always seems to be very difficult to make that happen,” Sainz explained. “He always seems to prefer to have a bit of contact and risk a DNF or a puncture like we did, than to actually accept having two cars side by side.
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls Team
Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images
“Hopefully, it will come with more experience to him because he knows he’s putting too many points on the line just for an unnecessary manoeuvre like he did. But on top of that, to then get a 10-second penalty for it, I think it’s a complete joke.”
Lawson claimed that there were no personal problems between him and the Spanish driver, despite the comments from Sainz.
“No, I mean, no. To me, I’m surprised. It’s lap one on a restart, we have cold tyres, hard tyres, we’re all on new tyres after the safety car,” Lawson added. “It’s a naturally difficult corner, we’re all coming in there on lap one. He’s the car going for the overtake, around the outside, and he didn’t get his axle where he needed to get it. And somehow I’m deemed as being aggressive.
“So I don’t really understand it. But it ruined my race. We were in a position to potentially have two cars in the top five, but I didn’t go on the radio and mouth off to everybody about it, or to the media. So, yeah, it’s his approach after that race, I don’t know why he was so upset, honestly. If I was overtaking him, I would understand that he’s more frustrated, but he was the car overtaking, and he got a penalty for it.”
The Racing Bulls driver confirmed that he has not heard from Sainz since the incident.
“I would have thought, because of how upset he was, he would probably want to talk about it, but he hasn’t come to talk about it.”
In this article
Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics
