{"id":45600,"date":"2026-09-05T20:46:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T20:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/45600\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T20:46:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T20:46:41","slug":"liam-lawson-lifts-lid-on-35-place-fia-penalty-at-italian-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/45600\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Lawson lifts lid on 35-place FIA penalty at Italian Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull<\/a> driver Liam Lawson<\/a> has confirmed that his 35-place grid penalty at the Italian Grand Prix was planned, with the New Zealander focusing on race pace throughout the weekend at Monza.<\/p>\n

And he has admitted that he \u201cdidn\u2019t really know what I was doing\u201d in qualifying after criticising Red Bull\u2019s \u201cappalling\u201d execution over team radio.<\/p>\n

Liam Lawson to start Italian Grand Prix from back of grid<\/p>\n

Lawson will start from the back of Sunday\u2019s grid at Monza after Red Bull opted for an engine change, with the new components adding up to a 35-place grid drop in total.<\/p>\n

A change to the rules over recent years means that drivers who incur a grid penalty of more than 15 places must automatically start at the back of the grid, putting Lawson 21st on the grid at Monza.<\/p>\n

Mercedes\u2019 championship leader Kimi Antonelli and Williams\u2019 Alex Albon also carried back-of-the-grid penalties into qualifying. Lawson starts a place behind Antonelli, and one ahead of Albon.<\/p>\n

Liam Lawson vs Arvid Lindblad: Racing Bulls head-to-head stats for F1 2026 season<\/p>\n

F1 2026: Head-to-head qualifying records between teammates<\/a><\/p>\n

F1 2026: Head-to-head race statistics between teammates<\/a><\/p>\n

Lawson was heard accusing Red Bull of hanging him out to dry over team radio after falling in Q2 at Monza, with the New Zealander criticising the team\u2019s \u201cappalling\u201d execution.<\/p>\n

He was eliminated after being impeded by Oscar Piastri at Turn 1, with the McLaren driver receiving a three-place grid drop as a result.<\/p>\n

Lawson\u2019s penalty was only made official shortly before Saturday\u2019s qualifying session.<\/p>\n

Speaking to PlanetF1.com and other media outlets after the session, however, Lawson confirmed that Red Bull always planned for him to take a penalty this weekend.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt was planned before the weekend, so something I knew coming into it, which is why we spent yesterday [Friday practice] just focusing on the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawson confirmed that the plan had been for him to reach Q3 despite his penalty in order to give teammate Max Verstappen an all-important slipstream.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cI think that was what we were focused on, but obviously need to get there to be able to do it and I think we didn\u2019t optimise this quali, so it\u2019s a shame.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just spent the whole quali in clean air until that last lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the first time I\u2019d sat behind a car and the tyres were super-hot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just wasn\u2019t an ideal situation, so trying to do it for the first time was not ideal. But I think obviously having Oscar at Turn 1 probably hurt more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed on the impeding incident with Piastri, he added: \u201cIt just wasn\u2019t ideal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously left it to the end there to try and put a lap together. Tyres were pretty hot and then obviously not ideal getting blocked at Turn 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal was to try and focus this weekend on the race anyway. Obviously, we\u2019ve got a penalty for tomorrow, so yesterday we were very long run-focused anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked directly by PlanetF1.com if his team radio outburst was made in the heat of the moment, Lawson replied: \u201cFor sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just had a plan and in some ways didn\u2019t really follow it exactly.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for me, I just felt at times I didn\u2019t really know what I was doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut obviously, for us this weekend quali wasn\u2019t really important for us. We start at the back tomorrow, so hopefully we can have a strong race tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next: FIA confirms Oscar Piastri punishment after Liam Lawson investigation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull driver Liam Lawson has confirmed that his 35-place grid penalty at the Italian Grand Prix was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1534,14363,5,8995,36,3161,28872],"class_list":["post-45600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-home-page","tag-italian-grand-prix","tag-italy","tag-liam-lawson","tag-news","tag-popular","tag-red-bull"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}