Red Bull junior and F1 hopeful Liam Lawson could only finish fifth in last weekend's Sugo SFormula round in a blow to his title hopes. Here's how a strategy miscommunication cost him the chance to challenge runaway winner Miyata:
Red Bull junior Liam Lawson hopes of winning the Super Formula title this year were dealt a blow with a frustrating fifth-place finish at Sugo. A miscommunication with his team lies at the heart of the Kiwi’s most disappointing weekend in Japan so far.“I don't know what to say... how we can go from where we were to... I don't understand what the hell just happened."
Lawson, meanwhile, was the last of the leading group to pit, finally doing so on lap 41. On fresh tyres he was exceptionally fast, posting the best lap of the race, but such was the time had lost in the opening stint that he was jumped in the stops by not only Miyata and Nojiri, but also by Tadasuke Makino, Kazuya Oshima, Kamui Kobayashi and Yuji Kunimoto.
After informing Lawson that Miyata had pitted, Koike added:"It's difficult to overcut him [Miyata] in a short time, so we'll stay out." But Tsuboi’s pace was so lacklustre in comparison to Miyata that it was clear that any realistic hope of making the overcut strategy work rested on Lawson passing Tsuboi on-track.
“The first set of tyres also felt really bad. It was a mix of being held up and the temperatures dropping; we didn’t have the right tyre pressures because it was slightly cooler than we expected. “Liam wanted us to focus on Ritomo in particular, and that we didn’t need to worry about Nojiri or Makino [stopping early],” said Koike. “At the time, we decided we had to follow Ritomo [by staying out]. Ritomo then responded to Nojiri to avoid being undercut.
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