Visa Cash App RB CEO Peter Bayer says it's important that reserve driver Liam Lawson is helping to keep the heat on the squad's current regular drivers Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo.
Lawson made his Formula 1 debut last season, sitting in for five races when Ricciardo suffered a hand injury during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.
But when RB announced its driver line-up for 2024, Lawson was passed over for a full-time role leaving him spinning his wheels on the sidelines without a racing programme this year, and pondering his future in F1.
Bayer said that the team was doing its best to find ways of keeping Lawson engaged, who continues his duties as reserve driver for both RB and the senior Red Bull Racing team, attending races and working in the simulator.
“First of all, he’s a very good reserve driver,” Peter Bayer told Australian motorsport news website Speedcafe of Lawson’s current role. “He’s keeping the fire warm under the two seats, they’re not getting lazy.
“At the same time, we do try and run him as much as we can," he added, pointing out that Lawson had been involved in the team's most recent test of a previous generation car at Imola.
"We want to do another one, so we try and give him as much track time as we possibly can afford," Bayer said. “He’s doing simulator sessions and he’s with us. He’s an important part of the team."
However Bayer downplayed suggestions that Lawson could replace Ricciardo at RB as soon as the Miami Grand Prix if the Australian doesn't recover his form after struggling in the first three races of the season.
“He’s getting himself ready and at the same time, by being ready and by having shown what he’s capable of last year, he keeps that natural Red Bull pressure on,” noted Bayer.
“It’s an interesting situation because we have a bit of pressure from the bottom and the pull effect from the top, which obviously I do accept that it creates a certain pressure on the drivers."
While the Red Bull driver development programme is renowned for its ruthless approach to dropping anyone not seen to be delivering, Bayer insisted that it was just the same as the situation at any other Formula 1 squad.
"I don’t think it’s bigger than any other team,” he said. “Actually I think they’re better off with our team because there is more flexibility. There is more opportunity than another team [where] if you don’t perform well, that’s it.”
Lawson is by no means alone waiting in the queue for an opening on the F1 grid. Ollie Bearman is hotly tipped to be at Haas next year after his super-sub stint in Jeddah filling in for Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.
Alpine have Jack Doohan waiting in the wings for a seat should either Pierre Gasly or Esteban Ocon leave Enstone at the end of the year, and Mercedes is said to be eyeing teenager Andrea Kimi Antonelli to replace Lewis Hamilton.
Lawson's own ladder to F1 has seen him win the 2019 Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand, and finish as runner-up in that year’s Euroformula Open championship, before two seasons in Formula 3 saw him clinch three race victories.
The following two seasons in Formula 2 saw him emerge with five wins, before he moved to Japan to compete in the Super Formula championship. He won on debut and finished second in the standings despite missing rounds while racing in F1.
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