Round-up: Lawson sheds new light on “crazy” set-up he ran in final Red Bull race, and more | RaceFans Round-up
June 22, 2026
Welcome to Monday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.
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The part of my Red Bull story nobody knows – Lawson (High Performance)
‘We made a massive (change), a change you would never do on a race weekend. Like, a normal change times 10. Trying to get the same sort of balance out of the car, just in a very different way. An easier car to drive, a more stable car and basically, it’s kind of a shot in the dark. And even if it kind of works, the chance of it working over a race was very low. And I knew all of these things, but. It was sort of proposed to me as ‘this is going to help you for the future’ and this is going to give us a bit more of a direction. We’re going to try this. You’re starting last, the race is kind of done anyway, let’s just try something and this will help you. And so I ran it. It sucked for this race. The car was so hard to drive and just killed the fronts and basically destroyed our race. But honestly I didn’t care at the time because I was like ‘there’s a reason we’ve done this’. And then I flew back to the UK for simulator on whatever it was – Tuesday or Wednesday – and then on Monday I get the phone call: ‘oh actually we’re switching you’. I was like ‘why did we do…’ like, if you told me before the race ‘okay we’re going to run this crazy car for your last race in a Red Bull, or we’re going to run the set-up that you’ve run all weekend’. What do you think I would have said? So it was just kind of like that.’
New Madrid F1 track steers a course through competing demands (Financial Times)
‘When you organise a Formula 1 grand prix, people think about the track and the corner. But you also have to think about mobility, sustainability and the customer experience. People are coming for an experience, not just for a Formula 1 race.’
Good food, good genes, good luck: how Ronaldo, Serena and other top athletes compete in their forties (The Guardian)
‘It’s not just football. Lewis Hamilton is still competing in Formula One aged 41, while earlier this week Wimbledon granted Serena Williams, 44, and Venus Williams, 46, a wildcard into the women’s doubles draw.’
Thomas Bearman plots his own path after Italian F4 move with VAR (Formula Scout)
‘Tracks like Monza and Mugello are very wide, and even places like Misano are designed for Moto GP, which leads to a different, smoother style of driving. The higher temperatures compared to Britain mean you have to be a lot more tyre-focused than in a 20-minute British race. These are important things that will carry over as you climb the ranks.’
Race Highlights | 2026 IndyCar at Road America (IndyCar)
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to DomPrez and Rhys Lloyd!
On this day in motorsport
Ayrton Senna won on the streets of Detroit today in 1986
40 years ago today Ayrton Senna won the United States Grand Prix at Detroit for Lotus ahead of Jacques Laffite, the latter making his final appearance on the podium
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Published by
Keith Collantine
Originally published on www.racefans.net — View original
Social media and links
The part of my Red Bull story nobody knows – Lawson (High Performance)
‘We made a massive (change), a change you would never do on a race weekend. Like, a normal change times 10. Trying to get the same sort of balance out of the car, just in a very different way. An easier car to drive, a more stable car and basically, it’s kind of a shot in the dark. And even if it kind of works, the chance of it working over a race was very low. And I knew all of these things, but. It was sort of proposed to me as ‘this is going to help you for the future’ and this is going to give us a bit more of a direction. We’re going to try this. You’re starting last, the race is kind of done anyway, let’s just try something and this will help you. And so I ran it. It sucked for this race. The car was so hard to drive and just killed the fronts and basically destroyed our race. But honestly I didn’t care at the time because I was like ‘there’s a reason we’ve done this’. And then I flew back to the UK for simulator on whatever it was – Tuesday or Wednesday – and then on Monday I get the phone call: ‘oh actually we’re switching you’. I was like ‘why did we do…’ like, if you told me before the race ‘okay we’re going to run this crazy car for your last race in a Red Bull, or we’re going to run the set-up that you’ve run all weekend’. What do you think I would have said? So it was just kind of like that.’
New Madrid F1 track steers a course through competing demands (Financial Times)
‘When you organise a Formula 1 grand prix, people think about the track and the corner. But you also have to think about mobility, sustainability and the customer experience. People are coming for an experience, not just for a Formula 1 race.’
Good food, good genes, good luck: how Ronaldo, Serena and other top athletes compete in their forties (The Guardian)
‘It’s not just football. Lewis Hamilton is still competing in Formula One aged 41, while earlier this week Wimbledon granted Serena Williams, 44, and Venus Williams, 46, a wildcard into the women’s doubles draw.’
Thomas Bearman plots his own path after Italian F4 move with VAR (Formula Scout)
‘Tracks like Monza and Mugello are very wide, and even places like Misano are designed for Moto GP, which leads to a different, smoother style of driving. The higher temperatures compared to Britain mean you have to be a lot more tyre-focused than in a 20-minute British race. These are important things that will carry over as you climb the ranks.’
Race Highlights | 2026 IndyCar at Road America (IndyCar)
RaceFans always endeavours to credit original sources. Want to share a relevant motorsport link with us? Send it in via the contact form.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free