Liam Lawson apologised to Max Verstappen after the stewards issued the same penalty to both drivers for their collision in second practice.
Both drivers are ultimately employed by the Red Bull organisation, which owns the Red Bull Racing team Verstappen drives for and the junior Racing Bulls squad which Lawson belongs to.Lawson does not yet have a contract for next year, a fact Verstappen alluded to yesterday. “When you’re fighting for your seat, it’s not very smart behaviour,” he said.
Lawson indicated his concern over his future was a factor in his reaction to the incident. “I went to see Max this morning to apologise because, obviously what happened yesterday doesn’t need to happen,” he told Sky. “I don’t want to have that happen in the future. And obviously right now it’s not the best time.”
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies denied Verstappen and the senior Red Bull team would direct Racing Bulls’ choice of drivers for next year.
“You have to separate both aspects,” he said. “You have some things that were very unnecessary on the track and therefore are frustrating for the drivers involved and frustrating for the teams involved, and this is probably what you hear with Max’s answer, and then there are driver decisions.”
Racing Bulls driver line-up is “down to them and only down to them,” Mekies added.
Asked whether Verstappen could influence Racing Bulls’ decisions on their driver line-up, Mekies responded: “Max knows motorsport far too much to be influenced by a single episode anyway.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and