Liam Lawson set to perform Imola test after Silverstone outing

Having completed a filming day with Red Bull at Silverstone, the team’s reserve driver Liam Lawson is set to perform another test with a 2022 AlphaTauri car at Imola later this month.

Following last Sunday’s British Grand Prix, several teams stayed at Silverstone to assist Pirelli with its latest tyre evaluation test.

While Haas, Williams, and McLaren worked on the 2025 F1 tyres, Red Bull was present at Silverstone for a different reason.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit used up its second permitted filming day of the year on Thursday. Behind the wheel was the team’s reserve driver Liam Lawson.

While the team insisted it was a regular filming day, his outing caused all sorts of speculation about what might be going on with the driver line-ups at the two Red Bull teams, Red Bull Racing and the Visa Cash RB outfit.

While Max Verstappen has a long-term contract in his pocket at Red Bull, Yuki Tsunoda has also secured a one-year contract extension at the Visa Cash RB outfit.

However, Daniel Riccardo’s future is hanging in the balance after his fluctuating performance over the course of the first half of the 2024 F1 season. The Australian was believed to have a firm chance to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull for 2025, but his performance has so far not been enough to retake his former race seat at the Milton Keynes-based squad.

The Mexican secured a two-year contract extension recently, which will see him continue to race for F1’s world champions until the end of the 2026 season. However, with Perez having seriously struggled for pace in recent months, it has emerged that performance-related clauses might see him lose his seat after this season.

Commenting on Lawson’s latest outing with the Austro-British squad, team boss Christian Horner denied that it was an evaluation run for the New-Zealander.

“Those tests have been planned for some time so they’re not something that have just sprung up, they’ve been planned for a couple of months now.

“Liam is our test and reserve driver, that’s his job,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner to Sky Sports F1.

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