FIA Formula 2 Championship and Red Bull Junior driver Liam Lawson has successfully completed his first 2022 Formula One test with Alpha Tauri in the first practice session on Friday at the Belgium F1 Grand Prix being held at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit.
“I’ve enjoyed getting to drive the car around such an iconic track, it’s been a crazy experience,” commented Lawson. “The car was great to drive, the limit is so much further than I was ready for, it took a bit of time to get used to that, but I think I built up the pace steadily on the ‘Hards’ and was ready to push on the Softs at the end, so it’s a bit of a shame I didn’t get the opportunity to really go for it.”
The key to this session was not to record a fast time, rather AlphaTauri had a specific run plan for Lawson for gathering data for the remaining sessions and their preparation for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
“He did a good job,” commented Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer). “It was great to welcome Liam back to the team, with him taking over the FP1 duties in Pierre’s (Gasly) AT03.
“The conditions were not straightforward for this session – cold temperatures, hard tyres, damp track, a Red Flag and rain at the end of the session – but he kept his head down and completed all of the work we asked of him.”
“I want to say a big thank you to Scuderia AlphaTauri and Red Bull for giving me this opportunity. It’s been really cool spending the weekend with the team, it’s a crazy step up from F2. There’s so many more people than I’m used to, but having this opportunity is really great for us young drivers so we can understand what it’s like in an F1 team and learn as much as we can. I’ve loved every second of today and am extremely appreciative for this opportunity.”
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