Up and coming New Zealand driver Liam Lawson got his first taste of the Mount Panorama circuit at speed last weekend, during the Bathurst Liqui-Moly 12 Hour programme.
With a decent turn of speed, too. The 20-year-old Red Bull Junior driver piloted the Oracle Red Bull Racing RB7 Formula One car on a display lap. The RB7 dominated the 2011 Championship, taking 18 of 19 poles, winning 12 races and delivering 27 podiums on the team’s way to a second Driver and Constructors Championship.
Lawson has form demonstrating the RB7 for eager crowns: he drove it at the 2021 Goodwood Festival of Speed, also his first time behind the wheel of a n F1 car.
“Mount Panorama is one of the most famous places in the world,” Lawson said. “It’s a track I’ve wanted to drive since I was a kid. Before I can even remember I would’ve been watching the Bathurst 1000 Supercars race. I watch this as much as I watch F1, so it’s a mix of two worlds here today, it’s pretty special.”
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“Doing something like this is a dream come true sort of moment,” Lawson said. “It’s pretty special to be able to drive a car that I looked up to a lot when I was a kid and to show everybody here, to show the fans.”
Lawson was been among the current crop of F1 talent in several outings last year. He completed Friday practice sessions for Alpha Tauri at last year's Belgian and Mexican Grands Prix, before jumping into the Oracle Red Bull Racing car for FP1 at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Lawson said the biggest challenge at Mount Panorama in the RB7 was elevation: "We sit low in an F1 car, so when you’re going over these big crests, dropping down, that is really different".
The RB7 was also on display throughout the Bathurst 12 Hour. Oracle Red Bull Racing will be back in Australia for the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix from 30
March to 2 April 2023.
Lawson, meanwhile, will spend 2023 with Honda in Super Formula - Japan's top open-wheeler series. But he will remain as Red Bull's main reserve driver; the move to Super Formula is seen as further preparation in his bid to earn a full F1 seat with Red Bull, by racing a car that is close in specification to F1.
