Racing Bulls brought a significant upgrade package for Spa-Francorchamps. The upgrades follow, among other things, a good result during the British GP, where both drivers finished in the points. The only problem was that the team did not have enough time to equip both cars with the upgrades. Team principal Alan Permane reveals the creative way Racing Bulls solved this: ‘We agreed that whoever qualified better in Silverstone would get the upgrade’.
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The Racing Bulls team brought an upgrade package for the Belgian GP. Among other things, the sidepods, engine cover, roll hoop, and rear wing were worked on. However, the team could only apply the complex package to one of its two cars. Team principal Alan Permane reveals how it was decided which of the two drivers – Liam Lawson or Arvid Lindblad – ultimately became the lucky one.
“Honestly, we don’t like to implement updates for only one car,” Permane says in the press conference for the Belgian GP. “But it was impossible to do it for two cars. It’s an adjustment to the chassis. We had to reduce the roll hoop, and we simply couldn’t manage to do that in time for both cars between Silverstone and here.”
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Competition at Silverstone
The Brit then came up with a plan to make the final choice fairer. “So what I did was sit down with both drivers on Saturday evening in Austria. We had just had a very good qualifying,” Permane says. “I thought: okay, now that everyone is in a good mood, I’m going to bring some bad news. There’s a good update coming, but we can only apply it to one car for Spa. And the next car will be ready for the race after that, in Budapest.”
Permane first suggested bringing both upgrade packages only for the Hungarian GP, but soon retracted that proposal. “Then I said: listen, we can flip a coin, or we can make it fun and agree that whoever qualifies first in Silverstone gets the upgrade. They both agreed to that, and that’s how we did it.” Lindblad qualified one place higher than Lawson in ninth, so he has already received the upgrade for Spa-Francorchamps.
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Read everything about the Belgian GP here
