It doesn’t hurt the confidence levels, though, and Lawson knows a confident driver is a fast driver.
“I think all drivers at this level, the driver has to have their own ego - as long as it’s not public, which is how I would hate to come across,” Lawson told the Herald. “For me, it’s more of a confidence level and being confident in your own ability. You have to believe in yourself, so I have absolutely plenty of that.
“But in terms of what’s been going on in the media, I just don’t really look into it. I’ve got a big enough challenge going into this weekend, going into this track, and that’s honestly really what I’m thinking about.”
Heading into Sunday’s race at the Autopolis Circuit in Hita, Lawson sits third in the overall standings with a win and two other top-five finishes in his first three appearances. It has been an impressive start for Lawson, who noted at the start of the season just how tough a series Super Formula has been in the past for foreign drivers to come and immediately be challenging for race wins.
But that goes back to the confidence element. Lawson knows his own talents and with Team Mugen he has been presented a well-designed and developed car that has so far allowed him to display the best of himself.
Just as having confidence in his own talents, Lawson said being confident his car is capable of race wins is massive in the context of his campaign.
“It’s definitely huge,” Lawson said.
“When you know you have a good package and the car’s working exactly like you want it to, you have so much more confidence knowing that when you’re going into this next corner and throwing the car in at 280km/h, you basically know full well that the car is going to stick and do what you want it to do.
“Whereas if you’re in a window where the car is not quite doing what you want it to do, you can lose confidence and sort of lose trust in the car. It makes a huge difference.”
That will be particularly important for Lawson at Autopolis as he has the disadvantage of being unfamiliar with the track. The opening rounds of the season were at the two well-known tracks of Fuji and Suzuka, while the next two rounds will be held at less familiar tracks.
With the rest of the 22-car field being Japanese drivers who know these tracks well, Lawson said it was an added challenge to the season that simply added to his learning opportunities.
“I’m learning a lot more about these really high downforce cars and these cars are a lot more technical as well than what I’ve been working with in Formula 2,” Lawson explained.
”What I’m learning as a driver to be able to help the team and support them with set-up is much better here. The teams are much bigger, you’re working with a lot more people as well, so it’s quite a big step up.
“This really bridges the gap to Formula 1. I would say it’s really a big step to go from Formula 2 to Formula 1 and I think it’s too big a step. So, I’m very lucky to be doing this because it’s really bridging that gap.”
