Liam Lawson ended his first adventure in the world of GT racing very positively, which saw him face the 2021 season of the DTM.
As is well known, the New Zealander was deprived of the title only in the last race, after great things done at the wheel of the AF Corse Ferrari 488.
The young Red Bull offspring was present at the Ferrari World Finals in Mugello and Motorsport.com was able to have an exclusive chat with him, without going back to the Norisring crime, but trying to grasp the good aspects of an experience that could come back to him. useful in the future.
Liam, tell us about your debut season in the DTM with the AF Corse Ferrari …
“For me it was a memorable year, certainly something I will not forget, even if my racing career obviously continues. I really enjoyed it. It was my first time with a GT, my first time with Ferrari, and it’s a combination Quite interesting that Red Bull also collaborated with Maranello. It was quite nice actually. A fantastic environment to be in. Obviously as a driver I am looking to switch to Formula 1 at the moment. This experience was not so important from the point of view. of driving style, but to learn how to work with a manufacturer. This was a great learning for me and I really enjoyed it. “
What was it like working with a house?
“I really enjoyed it, we had the chance to develop the things we wanted, from macro to micro. For example, if I was looking to have a little more torque on a particular gear in a specific corner, I had the chance to Doing it, while I’ve never been able to do it in Formula 2 or Formula 3 or any other category. That side has been really fantastic. “
Liam Lawson, AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
What do you think of GT racing?
“It was my first time in GT, so I talked to a lot of people about what it was like to drive the car and things like that. What I heard from people was that GTs were going to be a lot heavier than cars, but then when I drove the car really impressed me a lot. It moved a lot, but it was really very pleasant to drive and there were so many parameters we could change. I think this was probably the biggest learning point for me this year, getting used to change the driving style in the car with traction control and ABS. Speaking of racing, with this downforce you can follow a car much more closely; this ends up with a lot of duels on the track and it shocked me at the beginning of the year. something like a different style of running, but it was quite fun. “
What’s the biggest difference you’ve found between GT and single-seaters?
“The level of downforce, compared to that offered by the single-seaters, is quite different but there is still a lot to do. I was really surprised by how important it was to push the car into corners. In ours, at least, all the downforce on the car. front came from the splitter and if you braked incorrectly or didn’t push the car well then you had less downforce. This was something that took me a while to get used to but ended up changing the way I drove a lot just to be more consistent about how to push it. This was pretty fun to learn. “
Have you changed your driving style?
“At the beginning it was difficult to adapt my style between these Formula 2 and GT3 cars, but in the end I got used to it and it was easy to drive both.”
Do you now prefer GTs to single-seaters?
“I like the single-seaters even more, of course. This year I enjoyed racing in the DTM, but the thing I liked most was working with the team, learning from them too, being part of a top championship. level with a constructor. That side was really fantastic. I felt a lot of passion from the team and that gave me extra motivation. That’s what I liked most about this year. “
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