Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane has raised the possibility that damage sustained to Liam Lawson's car during practice at the Canadian Grand Prix could prove "terminal", potentially ruling the New Zealander out of Sprint qualifying.
A Disastrous Start to the Weekend
Lawson's Friday came apart in the opening minutes of the session, his car grinding to a halt after a hydraulic issue that robbed him of power steering. It was an early and damaging blow on a Sprint weekend, where track time is already at a premium and the margin for mechanical error is effectively zero.
Compounding his misfortune, Lawson is also under investigation and faces the prospect of a penalty following a separate issue with his CDS — clutch disengagement system. The CDS is a critical safety component in Formula 1, designed to allow marshals to disengage the clutch during a car recovery without needing the engine to be running. A malfunction of this system can attract regulatory scrutiny from the stewards.
It was, in short, one of the worst possible ways to begin a Grand Prix weekend.
Racing Against the Clock
With Sprint qualifying looming, the pressure on Racing Bulls' mechanics is immense. When Permane appeared in the team principals' press conference in Montreal — roughly 40 minutes after the end of practice — he confirmed the car had not yet been returned to the garage, leaving the team unable to assess the full extent of the hydraulic damage.
The uncertainty only deepened concerns about whether the car could be made race-ready in time. As a chaotic FP1 session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve had already illustrated, Lawson was far from the only driver affected by trouble during practice — but few faced a predicament as severe.
"Yeah, very frustrating, especially on a Sprint weekend. It's tough to lose the car so early on," Permane said.
"It's a hydraulic leak. As I came up here, we didn't have the car back yet, so I don't know how serious it is. It could be something very simple and we could be out comfortably for the next session, or it could be something a bit more terminal, so yeah, watch this space."
The phrase "watch this space" said everything about the fragility of Racing Bulls' situation. On a Sprint weekend where there is no second free practice to fall back on, a prolonged repair job — or worse, damage that cannot be fixed in time — would leave Lawson with a deeply compromised weekend before it has truly begun.
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Given Linblad's performance in FP1, Lawson needs to get back on track!