Liam Lawson is driving Purple Bull’s 2024 System 1 at Silverstone in a filming day on Thursday in a check that comes at a time when strain is rising on an underperforming Sergio Perez.
New Zealander Lawson, 22, serves as reserve driver to each of Purple Bull’s F1 groups and is eyeing a future full-time seat of their steady. He impressed in a five-race cameo for RB, then often called AlphaTauri, final yr as stand-in for an injured Daniel Ricciardo, scoring factors at his third race look in Singapore.
On Thursday, Lawson might be working within the present championship-leading R20 as Purple Bull full their second of two permitted filming days this yr for promotional functions when monitor working is proscribed and tightly prescribed by F1’s rules.
As a part of his 2024 reserve programme, Lawson can also be scheduled to check a 2022 AlphaTauri automotive at Imola later this month.
“Those tests have been planned for some time so they’re not something that have just sprung up, they’ve been planned for a couple of months now,” stated Purple Bull crew principal Christian Horner to Sky Sports activities F1 after final Sunday’s British GP.
“Liam is our check and reserve driver, that is his job.
“But Checo, it’s been a horrible weekend for him.”
What is the significance of Lawson’s check and what’s a ‘filming day’?
In isolation, as Horner suggests, the upcoming runs in Purple Bull Racing and RB equipment merely type the newest a part of Lawson’s deliberate back-up position this yr and are alternatives for him to get again behind the wheel on a monitor in a yr when the teen doesn’t have a racing programme.
But, with in-season alternatives to run in present F1 equipment extraordinarily restricted, Thursday’s check in Purple Bull’s 2024 challenger is undoubtedly nonetheless a possibility for Lawson to point out the place he’s at present at.
‘Filming days’ – of which F1 outfits are allowed two per yr – are designed for groups to seize content material of their vehicles on monitor whereas they’re additionally commonly used for ‘shakedown’ functions forward of pre-season testing. Purple Bull accomplished their first filming day of the yr at Silverstone in February with Perez and Max Verstappen debuting the brand new RB20.
Every filming day is restricted to 200km of monitor working – which, in Thursday’s occasion, could be 33 laps of the total Silverstone GP circuit – and the automotive in use should be fitted with tyres particularly designed for such occasions by Pirelli.
Lawson chatting with Purple Bull advisor Helmut Marko and RB chief government Peter Bayer
Whereas Lawson’s run is definitely not make or break for his Purple Bull profession and his hopes of a full-time F1 seat on the grid at one among their two groups, from the 22-year-old’s perspective had been he to carry out conspicuously properly in Thursday’s run-out then it will assist to point out he’s a number one different choice for the world champions ought to one be wanted both later this season or subsequent.
Perez’s place just isn’t regarded as underneath speedy menace with the Hungarian and Belgian GPs to return earlier than the tip of the month earlier than F1 heads into its summer season break.
However the 34-year-old is underneath rising strain heading in direction of that August break to shortly discover a means out of the droop in type which has seen him rating simply 11 factors over the previous 5 races.
Horner admits Perez’s present type is ‘unsustainable’
Perez scored no factors eventually week’s British GP after enduring one other wretched weekend at Silverstone.
After spinning out in Q1 and qualifying nineteenth, he began from the pit lane following engine adjustments after which completed solely seventeenth after a chance on an early swap to intermediate tyres backfired. Staff-mate Verstappen completed the race an in depth second to Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
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Perez spins and seashores his automotive within the gravel bringing out the pink flag and he’s out in Q1!
Perez final completed on the rostrum eight races in the past in China whereas Verstappen has gained 3 times since.
“He knows it’s unsustainable to not be scoring points,” said Horner after final Sunday’s race.
“We have to be scoring points in that car.
“He is aware of his position and goal. No person is extra keen than Checo to search out his type once more.”
Perez’s speedy Purple Bull future had appeared safe after they introduced on June 4 that he had signed a two-year contract extension. However it’s thought the deal comprises sure efficiency clauses, which Horner has additionally strongly hinted at when requested about his driver’s struggles in latest weeks.
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Christian Horner solutions a ‘brutally arduous’ query regarding Perez’s prolonged contract with Purple Bull following the Mexican’s drop in type in latest races
Requested immediately by Sky Sports activities F1’s Martin Brundle in the course of the British GP weekend if he now wished that they had not signed Perez for subsequent yr fairly so early, he replied: “That’s a brutally hard question but, of course, at the point that you sign a driver the contents of any agreement are not going to be disclosed to all of you lot [the media].
“So it made absolute sense to signal Checo at that time limit however this can be a enterprise through which there are pressures to ship.”
Regardless of Perez’s lack of factors and the disappearance of the reigning champions’ 2023 dominance ranges, Purple Bull have nonetheless steadily elevated their total lead within the Constructors’ Championship over the previous 4 races to what stands as a 71-point benefit after Silverstone.
However they’ve been afforded respiration house for now by second-place Ferrari, their closest challengers from the early section of the season, dropping down the pecking order at latest races.
McLaren and Mercedes have every outscored Purple Bull over the previous 5 races, with the previous simply 78 factors adrift now having been 115 behind six races in the past. Sunday’s Silverstone race marked the midway level of the 24-race 2024 season.
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Making his debut in F1 eventually yr’s Dutch GP, Lawson battles with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc
Ricciardo’s future not but sure both
Lawson’s Silverstone outing within the present Purple Bull comes a yr to the day since Ricciardo was given an outing within the crew’s then-latest automotive in a check at Silverstone following the British GP.
Ricciardo, who himself was serving a back-up position at Purple Bull on the time having returned to their fold following his exit from McLaren, drove in a Pirelli tyre check, when the run plans are managed by F1’s tyre producer.
In that occasion, Ricciardo’s efficiency within the RB19 was sufficiently spectacular that it led to Horner and Purple Bull advisor Helmut Marko instantly handing the Australian an F1 comeback at Nyck de Vries’ expense at AlphaTauri.
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Each RB drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda say they nonetheless stay optimistic about their future at Purple Bull regardless of the information Perez will proceed with the crew for one more two years
However, one yr on, Ricciardo’s future now stays removed from sure.
Whereas team-mate Yuki Tsunoda has already been handed a contract extension for 2025 at RB, Ricciardo has but to search out out whether or not or not he’ll retained too.
Lawson additionally stays an alternate at RB, as theoretically would Perez had been Purple Bull to make any emergency change on the senior crew earlier than subsequent season.
Subsequent up for F1 is the Hungarian Grand Prix from Budapest on July 19-21. You may watch each session reside on Sky Sports activities F1. Stream each F1 race and extra with a NOW Sports activities Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime
