Liam Lawson to drive F1 demos at Bathurst - 27 January 2023
COPYRIGHT FREE IMAGE: (1) Liam Lawson (2/3) Liam Lawson drives the RB7 F1 car at Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK in 2021. (Photos: Red Bull Content Pool)
Liam Lawson to drive F1 demos at Bathurst
Liam Lawson has been confirmed to drive the Red Bull RB7 in the demonstration runs at Bathurst next weekend.
The demos will be part of the Bathurst 12-Hour and it will be the first time the Red Bull F1 Reserve driver has been to the iconic venue.
"I’ve never been there so obviously my first time to Bathurst. To drive a car like that around there is probably going to be a little bit scary but we’re not there to break any records, we're there for demonstration runs.
"It’ll be very cool to show people the car. I’ll definitely be leaving margin at that place!"
It's not the first time Lawson has driven Sebastien Vettel's 2011 championship winning car. In July 2011 he drove it at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
"Definitely the most emotional time I’ve had driving any car just because it was the car when I was getting heavily into Formula 1 at eight years old, in 2010, and the car is from 2011. I remember watching Sebastien Vettel and Red Bull as a whole dominate those four years and I love those cars. It was very cool to step into that one."
Last year Lawson got to drive Alpha Tauri's F1 car in two FP1 sessions and Max Verstappen's championship winning Red Bull car at Abu Dhabi in November.
"The modern Formula 1 car is much bigger, way more advanced and a lot heavier and the new cars are much faster," he said.
So what's the best aspect to driving the RB7?
"The sound! The fact that it is really, really light, you feel that around you. It has no halo of course, so fully exposed but it’s mainly the sound from the blown diffuser."