Liam Lawson Sides With Alex Albon In Strange Red Bull RB20 Comparison

Saajan Jogia | 17 Hours Ago

Nov 20, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Visa Cash App RB driver Liam Lawson (30) reacts at Las Vegas Circuit. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

VCARB driver Liam Lawson, who moves to Red Bull next season, affirmed Williams driver Alex Albon's explanation of what it feels like to drive a Red Bull F1 car. Albon, who raced for the Milton Keynes outfit in 2019 and 2020, revealed an interesting comparison between the handling of a Red Bull F1 car and playing the video game Call of Duty with the sensitivity set to maximum.

Albon wrote in The Players' Tribune that Red Bull's F1 car is more suited to Max Verstappen and described how it feels to drive the car. He said:

"I like a lot of front end and nose. I’ve been teammates with George and Charles and I’ve always had way more nose than them. Basically think front-end sensitivity. And when I got into the Red Bull … I mean there was so much nose on the thing that if you blew on the wheel the car would turn. If you play Call of Duty, or a game like that, turn your sensitivity up to the highest it will go. That’s what it’s like to drive that car."

Lawson, who was recently announced as Sergio Perez's replacement in 2025, has found his long-time dream coming true. He drove this season's RB20 F1 car in a Pirelli test in October and completed 116 laps of the Mugello Circuit, strongly agreeing with Albon's analogy.

The Kiwi driver explained that a car with low steering sensitivity is easier to control, allowing the driver to handle it more smoothly. But with Red Bull's F1 car, he acknowledged, the steering is indeed very aggressive to drive, and the car feels like it can be all over the place if one isn't careful. Speaking on the Pitstop podcast, Lawson said:

"I thought it was a brilliant way to describe it, that's one of the best ways you could describe it.

"Because I guess if you have low sensitivity, you have a lot of control over what you're doing. It's not very aggressive, everything's happening quite slowly but it's very stable. It's very smooth. 

"It's not very aggressive. But when you have really high sensitivity, everything's all over the place. 

"You try to play Call of Duty, and you're trying to shoot somebody, and your cursor is going all over the place, you have to be really accurate with what you're doing. And that's what it's like, to be honest, with the Red Bull. It's just very aggressive."