After the weekend in Singapore, the news that has taken on the most importance is undoubtedly the replacement of Daniel Ricciardo with Liam Lawson, who will get on the VCARB01 that belonged to the Australian starting from the next stop in the United States. Changes during the race are generally unusual, but in recent years the Red Bull world has become accustomed to seeing changes in progress.
Liam Lawson’s adventure, curiously, will resume precisely from that race in which last season the New Zealander had to once again give up the seat to Ricciardo himself, who had been forced to miss a few races due to a hand injury. The Australian returned to Austin, almost like a second home race for him, while this year his adventure ended just before returning to the United States.
Lawson will therefore be an official driver and no longer a reserve driver, but his path in Formula 1 will immediately start uphill, not only because getting into the cockpit having missed more than half the championship will not be easy, but also because the New Zealander will have to serve a penalty in Austin for replacing the Power Unit.
Liam Lawson, reserve driver, Visa Cash App RB F1 Team
Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com’s sister site, Motorsport-Total.comHelmut Marko confirmed the engine replacement, explaining: “The first [gara]I think, will not be relevant because it has a penalty for replacing the engine. Ten positions, so that doesn’t exactly make life easier in Austin.” It cannot be ruled out, however, that Racing Bulls decides to replace other components in addition to the engine, as done at Spa with Yuki Tsunoda.
This year the Honda engine engineer has encountered some reliability problems, not only with Red Bull, but also with Racing Bulls: not surprisingly, both the drivers of the Milton Keynes team and Tsunoda ended up with penalties. Max Verstappen and the Japanese served their penalty on the starting grid at Spa, while Sergio Perez took advantage of some uninspiring qualifying to replace components and stock up for the second half of the season.
Ricciardo was also destined for replacement but, curiously, Racing Bulls decided to wait, not serving the penalty either in Monza, where the Australian among other things did not even have the latest news, and Baku, two events where the Faenza car it didn’t really shine. On the contrary, the team chose to wait for Austin, one of those tracks where overtaking is possible, to serve the penalty and Lawson will presumably be forced to start from the back rows.
Liam Lawson rode in Monza for the Pirelli tests
Photo by: Pirelli
For the New Zealander, however, the penalty will represent both a bad thing and a good thing at the same time: although, logically, all eyes will be on him and there will be great attention around his performances, having to serve a ten-place penalty will mean that Lawson can approach this weekend differently, with a focus less on pure performance, but rather on consistency and knowledge of the car, especially on a track where he has never driven before.
Behind the scenes, clearly, Lawson is active on the simulator, both to gain greater confidence with the car and the track: the New Zealander still had the opportunity to drive during the year and did not stay still, lapping both with the AT03 at Imola that with Red Bull and Racing Bulls during the last Pirelli tire development session in Monza after the Grand Prix.
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