Racing
© Eterna
Racing Bulls ended Friday at the Austrian Grand Prix convinced it has taken a step forward, with a positive aero test helping put Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad in the mix at the Red Bull Ring even as braking remains the team’s main concern.
Lawson finished ninth in FP2 despite missing the opening session, while Lindblad backed up sixth place in FP1 with 12th in the afternoon. Team principal Alan Permane said the day’s early aero investigation “proved positive,” and Racing Bulls carried that configuration into FP2 on both cars as it completed its program “without any issues.”
“A good day for us,” Permane said in the team’s post-session comments. He said both drivers were happy with the car in the afternoon, with “decent balance,” and added that Racing Bulls is “much happier with our long-run pace here than we were in Barcelona” and has “made a step forward.”
That is the key change for a team trying to turn encouraging one-lap pace into a stronger weekend package. Lawson had only one session to work with after Ayumu Iwasa took over his car in FP1, but still emerged as the best-placed Racing Bulls driver in FP2 and the first car behind the front-running teams.
“Overall, a solid afternoon,” Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls driver, said. He said missing FP1 left him with “a bit of catching up to do in FP2,” but added that the car “felt like it was in a good place,” which made it “pretty easy to get back into the groove.”
Lindblad came away similarly encouraged, even if his Friday was less straightforward. After running sixth in the morning, he reported issues that point directly to the area Racing Bulls still needs to fix before qualifying.
“Overall, it was a good Friday here at the Red Bull Ring,” Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls driver, said. He said he had been “struggling a bit with the brakes and the balance,” but described them as “small things” the team can work on overnight. Lindblad added that Racing Bulls has done an “unbelievable job on the car development over the last few races” and said he is “confident we can fight for Q3 and points this weekend.”
Permane echoed that assessment of the problem area, saying “our main weakness lies” in braking and that it will be the team’s focus overnight. If Racing Bulls can improve that without losing the gains it found in its aero work and long-run pace, Friday suggested Austria could offer a stronger race package than the team showed in Barcelona.