Red Bull conduct private Silverstone test with three driver futures on the line

Liam Lawson will carry out a critical filming day for Red Bull on Thursday.

Liam Lawson is set for a crucial day behind the wheel of Red Bull’s RB20 on Thursday, with 200 kilometres of track time at his disposal to impress.

Red Bull is using up its second permitted filming day of the year at Silverstone on Thursday, handing over its RB20 to reserve driver Liam Lawson as all sorts of speculation swirls about what might be going on with the driver line-ups at the two Red Bull teams.

All eyes on Liam Lawson filming day at Silverstone

While the F1 regulations allow drivers to be set loose in older F1 cars (at least two years old and at most five) for private tests through its testing of previous cars (TPC) rules, the running of current machines outside of Grand Prix weekends is more tightly controlled.

Aside from official pre-season testing and the post-season young driver test, other sanctioned running includes Pirelli’s tyre testing programme – every team is given the opportunity to take part in the tyre manufacturer’s tests that take place throughout the year. These fall under the regulations for testing of current cars (TCC).

Pirelli’s tyre testing took place this week at Silverstone, with track time carried out by McLaren, Williams, and Haas across Tuesday and Wednesday.

But, on Thursday, Red Bull will carry out its second TCC promotional event of the year – every team is given two days per year in which it can drive its current car around a track for the purpose of gathering promotional material, such as photography and video. The rules allow for 200 kilometres of track time, using the car in a known configuration with no new parts permitted, and using specially supplied Pirelli ‘Academy’ tyres.

Assuming the team uses the full Grand Prix circuit, Lawson will thus have 34 laps of the track – and these 34 laps could end up proving crucial for his immediate future.

While Red Bull and Christian Horner have downplayed the importance of the test, outlining how the run has been planned for some time, PlanetF1.com’s understanding is that the Kiwi driver’s performance will be closely monitored to evaluate how he fares behind the wheel.

While his outright pace may not be easily judged, using the estimated time difference between the filming day tyres and those of the C1, C2, and C3 compounds used over the British Grand Prix weekend could allow Red Bull some insight into his pace.

This knowledge, along with watching how well Lawson handles the pressure of the outing with the senior team, would be added to the existing data from his previous FP1 outings, his weekends behind the wheel subbing in for an injured Daniel Ricciardo for AlphaTauri (now VCARB) last year, and previous testing appearances with both teams.

There are similarities between this outing and Ricciardo’s decisive test in the RB19 at the same circuit at the same point of last year. With Nyck de Vries struggling in the AlphaTauri, Red Bull placed Ricciardo behind the wheel of the RB19 for a Pirelli tyre test – which used existing and prototype tyre compounds – and his pace proved enough to lead Red Bull to make the decision to immediately replace De Vries with the Australian for the rest of the season.

With Red Bull not taking part in the Pirelli tyre test this week, it has instead turned towards its filming day allocation to give Lawson the chance to drive the RB20. Rather than focusing on carrying out Pirelli’s run programme, the day essentially serves as a private, mileage-capped, test for Lawson – the only difference being that he is using less relevant tyre compounds that make benchmarking a little more complicated.

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What’s the purpose of Liam Lawson’s Red Bull filming day?

Officially, there’s no greater purpose for this outing other than Red Bull seeking to gather its promotional material for use over the second half of the season.

But the timing of the test can’t be overlooked – it coincides with a point in time when Red Bull is becoming increasingly aware of its precarious position in the Constructors’ Championship as Sergio Perez continues to struggle for form.

This couldn’t have been illustrated more clearly than over the British Grand Prix weekend when Max Verstappen single-handedly took on both McLarens and both Mercedes drivers – ultimately losing out to Lewis Hamilton in the battle for victory. Red Bull lost ground to McLaren in the championship tables, and it led Christian Horner to admit Perez’s current lack of form is unsustainable.

“If all of you read too much into these things, I’m actually doing a lap at Silverstone in the RB8 on Thursday as well so you never know,” he joked. “In all seriousness, the Liam aero run, it has been planned for a couple of months now.

“So of course, Checo, he’s under pressure. That’s normal in Formula 1 and when you’re under-delivering, that pressure only mounts and he’s aware of that, he knows that and this weekend, just nothing’s really gone his way.”

PlanetF1.com also understands that Horner has been impressed by Ricciardo’s recent uptick in form, in which he’s more closely matching – or beating – the performances of the highly-rated Yuki Tsunoda. Ricciardo has proven a very capable teammate alongside Verstappen in the past, with signs emerging the Australian is closer to his peak abilities than at the start of this season to bring him into contention.

Performance clauses on both Ricciardo and Perez’s contracts could open the door for a change of seats, particularly if Ricciardo can continue his upward momentum through the remaining races to reach the summer break on a high – putting Christian Horner in the luxurious position of being able to choose whether or not to promote Ricciardo back to the seat he vacated at the end of 2018 or stick it out with Perez.

Speaking to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, Helmut Marko didn’t shut down the scenario facing Horner and Red Bull as he said: “We’ll know more by the summer break.”

Lawson is known to be in negotiations with Audi over its vacant seat for 2025, meaning the filming day could thus be seen as a straightforward evaluation of the Kiwi by Red Bull to see whether or not to pull the trigger and award a seat to him with near-immediate effect – its option on Lawson is believed to expire in September, meaning Lawson becomes a free agent if Red Bull don’t proceed.

Details of the alleged contract clauses allowing Red Bull to drop or demote Perez emerged over the British Grand Prix weekend, with one clause reported as the Mexican must be within 100 points of Verstappen by the summer break – the gap is currently 137 points.

Despite his new two-year contract signing just over a month ago, Red Bull has little to lose by demoting Perez to VCARB – or dropping him entirely – and slotting in either Ricciardo or Lawson in a bid to bolster its championship aspirations for the second half of the season. PlanetF1.com understands Tsunoda is not under consideration at this point for a promotion.

The most likely outcome would be promoting Ricciardo into the Red Bull alongside Verstappen for the second half of the season, with Perez given the option of dropping back to VCARB. Should the Mexican not take this option, or be dropped entirely from Red Bull’s four-driver line-up, Lawson would thus step up into the VCARB.

There’s also the possibility, albeit far less likely, that Lawson proves impressive enough to step in to replace Perez with VCARB’s driver line-up going unchanged – and Perez iced out.

If Perez does manage to head off the possibility of a mid-season switch by performing strongly in Hungary and Belgium, the evaluation of Lawson would also give Red Bull a benchmark to work with when it comes to figuring out its 2025 line-up as the second VCARB cockpit remains open.

The Kiwi is set for a further TPC test behind the wheel of the AlphaTauri AT03 at Imola in the week after the Belgian Grand Prix, meaning Red Bull can take its time to decide on the futures of Perez, Lawson, and Ricciardo for 2025 – all while another junior driver Isack Hadjar contends for the Formula 2 title.

It’s far from a bad position for Red Bull to be in for next season as it appears Perez and Ricciardo enter crunch moments in their careers, but vital decisions can’t be made if Lawson’s performance proves less than impressive – the Kiwi will surely be aware of the pressure on his shoulders heading into the day’s action at Silverstone.

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