ORACLE Red Bull Racing‘s Head of Race Engineering Gianpiero Lambiase gives his honest thoughts on the team’s performance in the post-season testing sessions at the Yas Marina.
Including the two current drivers, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, FIA Formula 2 driver Liam Lawson contributed an impressive one-hundred and eleven laps during last Tuesday’s session.
Lambiase said that the team are well aware they need to maintain their own expectations for the following season, commenting that ‘there is no room for complacency. As the drivers had an in-depth understanding of the RB18, the focus was solely on the evaluation of the 2023 tyres.
“Everyone within the Team is fully aware that there is no room for complacency,” commented Lambiase “and as such, we headed into the test with a full programme across both cars, which we were able to complete successfully. With the benefit of a thorough understanding of the RB18, the drivers focused their attention on evaluating the 2023 tyres.“
Although, there was a different reason for Lawson’s participation in the session. It seems the team are preparing Lawson for future Formula One appearances in the 2023 season as Liambiase stated that Lawson’s ‘higher priority was that the 20-year-old become more familiar with the car and the trackside operations. It’s crucial for the team that its junior driver is well acquainted with the Formula One car due to Lawson playing an essential part in the team’s activities.
“For Liam, the higher priority was his ongoing familiarisation of the car and Team’s operation trackside, particularly important in respect to correlation to our simulation tools, which he is an integral part of. It has been an extremely valuable day with plenty of data to go back and analyse over the coming days, which we can feed into the development of next year’s car.”