Liam Lawson says he may not know until the eve of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix whether he’ll race for Red Bull Racing or Racing Bulls around the streets of Baku.
It is, of course, dependent on Isack Hadjar’s fitness with the Frenchman having missed three races after fracturing his wrist in a training session.
Liam Lawson awaits Red Bull Racing decision for Azerbaijan Grand Prix
The injury, suffered just before Formula 1 returned from its summer break, kept Hadjar out of the Dutch Grand Prix with Lawson substituting for him and scoring six points with a seventh-placed finish.
The New Zealander remained in the car at Monza and Madrid, where he added a further eight points to his and Red Bull’s tally for the season.
Having been out of action for four weeks, Red Bull is hoping that the week off after Spain and before Azerbaijan will give Hadjar enough time to recover.
But his return is not something the team is willing to rush.
“We have a bit more time before Baku,” team principal Laurent Mekies told Sky F1 in Madrid.
“And honestly there is nothing wrong with his recovery. The recovery is going as planned.
“Some things take time, and we will take the time to evaluate before Baku and to put him on the sim.”
It does, however, mean Lawson remains in a holding pattern.
While the New Zealander would like to prepare for the Baku race by focusing on one car, either the RB22 or his Racing Bulls VCARB03, he will instead have to split his pre-race preparations between the two cars.
“It’s more the prep,” Lawson told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media in Madrid of the difficulty in not knowing which team he will be racing for.
“You know, doing prep for both is a bit difficult, and getting used to different cars.
“Coming to the end of the week, and now I feel quite comfortable in this car [the RB22].
“But yeah, I think just going forward, it’s the unknown sort of all the way up to the race weekends, probably all the way up to Wednesday or Thursday for Baku will be potentially when that’s decided, and that’s quite tricky to mentally prepare for which car I’ll drive.
“But at the same time, like I said, the more time I drive this, the more comfortable.”
But while Lawson was the leading Racing Bulls driver in the standings before his switch to Red Bull, he reckons going back to his VCARB03 will be difficult such is the difference between the two cars.
“Going back now would be quite tough,” he said. “Just different. It’s completely different to drive.”
Lawson has scored in two of his three appearances for Red Bull, a notable contrast to his two performances last season with the team that abruptly ended without a point on the board.
“It’s been overall quite positive,” he said. “I managed to score in obviously two of the three.
“I think Monza was tough, just with the whole weekend and the engine penalty, and then obviously having damage in the race really ruined it for us. But I think overall we’ve had good speed.
“I think this weekend was the first time where I felt that we could really fight in quali and fight at the front.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get it together in Q3, but we had good speed.”
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.
You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!
Read Next: Steiner calls Norris ‘unprofessional’ over Coca-Cola cooldown room row