Red Bull F1 junior drivers Juri Vips and Liam Lawson have a chance to make their first appearance on the 2022 Grand Prix weekend. Red Bull has confirmed that they will be running in this season’s free practice session.
The new rule requires inexperienced drivers to be hired for at least two FP1 sessions a year, rather than relying on the main driver or an official reserve driver who has already completed more than one Grand Prix race in his career. be.
F2 driver Juri Vips has already participated in two postseason tests in Abu Dhabi in 2020 and 2021. He is expected to grab the handle of Red Bull Racing’s new RB18 in two practice sessions this season.
The 21-year-old Estonian, who has been Red Bull Junior since 2018, will participate in F2 from Hi-Tech this year as well. In last year’s championship, he finished in 6th place with two wins.
Liam Lawson, who was his F1 teammate last year, will move to Carlin this year with Logan Sargeant. The 20-year-old New Zealander also participated in DTM, losing the title to Maximilian Getz by just three points.
Limam Lawson’s FP1 opportunity will be at Red Bull Racing’s sister team, Scuderia AlphaTauri. AlphaTauri has already worked with Liam Lawson at the Young Driver Test at the Yas Marina Circuit last December.
Scuderia AlphaTauri’s F1 team representative Franz Tost confirmed his choice when asked for a rookie candidate for the team at the F1 Barcelona test last week.
“It’s going to be Liam Lawson,” Franz Tost said.
“Of course, this is also Red Bull’s decision.”
“Currently, the drivers are Liam Lawson and Yuri Vips. I think Vips will be driving at Red Bull Racing and Lawson will be driving at Scuderia Alpha Tauri.”
“He also tested in Abu Dhabi last year,” Franz Tost continued.
“He will drive in F2 this year. Let’s see what the next step will be.”
Franz Tost’s comments suggest that the plan is not completely fixed and may change depending on how the two proceed in F2.
Last year’s F2 title was won by Oscar Piastri. Oscar Piastri missed his promotion to F1 in 2022, but was appointed as a reserve driver for the Alpine F1 Team. So he might be in FP1 at some point this year.
Similarly, Robert Shwartzman, who finished second in F2, is acting as a reserve driver in Ferrari F1 and has a chance to grab the steering wheel of F1-75 at some point during the season.
Meanwhile, Logan Sargeant is part of Williams’ junior driver roster, and Jack Aitken is also eligible to participate as a rookie despite his Grand Prix debut from the team at the F1 Sakhir Grand Prix in 2000.
Jack Aitken replaced George Russell’s seat from Mercedes as a replacement for Lewis Hamilton, who was infected with the new coronavirus.
George Russell is now a Mercedes F1 driver. The top junior in Mercedes F1 is now F2 rookie Frederick Besty.
Category: Category: F1 / Red bull / Alpha Tauri