Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 team have continued their streak of outpacing the rest of the midfield at Silverstone. Oracle Red Bull Racing’s sister team turned up to the British Grand Prix thirteen points behind Alpine. Points scored in all competitive sessions for Liam Lawson and Points in the Grand Prix for Arvid Lindblad, however, has closed the gap drastically.
For Lindblad the Silverstone weekend was a home debut to remember. For Lawson it was another performance that highlights why he remains in the Red Bull camp despite his rough stint at Red Bull.
Another Consecutive Points Finish For The Rookie
Both VCARB drivers are performing exceptionally this year, but Arvid Lindblad is looking particularly impressive as the grid’s newest arrival. Consistently throughout the year the young Brit has shown he can keep up with his teammate. Despite being 19 points away in the standings currently, his performances speak for themselves, particularly that of Silverstone.
Lindblad started the weekend off mildly uncomfortable with a deployment issue. It was the struggle for grip in the final stage of sprint qualifying, however, that hindered his performance. Lindblad qualified in 10th nearly five tenths off his teammate. The sprint start saw a bad getaway from Isack Hadjar, promoting the Racing Bull’s driver up the order. The Frenchman later got past Lindblad after charging back through the field, leaving the Brit rounding out the top 10.
A fourth Q3 appearance this year led to the eighteen-year-old lining up on the grid in P9, one place ahead of his teammate. A brilliant race start meant he jumped the McLarens down to the first corner. He then went toe to toe with Max Verstappen into turn one. Lindblad’s left wheels made fleeting contact with the grass as he attempted a risky move round the outside.
In the early laps the rookie expressed frustration, urging his team to give Lawson the hurry up after the Kiwi got ahead. With Oscar Piastri, Kimi Antonelli and Verstappen out of the points, Lindblad managed to come home in a brilliant sixth. The fifth consecutive points finish in a race weekend helped eke out his gap over Oliver Bearman in the standings, bringing his overall tally up to 20. A strong result for the young driver on home soil.
A Step Closer To Ninth For Lawson In The Standings
A decent haul of points for the Kiwi this time out in Silverstone sees him close the gap to just three points behind Pierre Gasly. The final stages of the sprint and Grand Prix qualifying sessions were when the VCARB 03 hit its ceiling in performance. Lawson out qualified his teammate on the Friday with a P9 but failed to do so the following day, ending up in P10.
The Sprint race started off with both him and Lindblad losing out to Gasly in the Alpine. Once Lawson managed to get back past, his task was to keep the slow starting Red bull behind him. It was a late move into Stowe, however, which almost led to the result slipping through his fingers. Hadjar went for a gap that was aggressively slammed shut by Lawson during the closing laps.
Both drivers from the Red Bull family found themselves in the Stewards room post-race. Hadjar felt the move didn’t warrant a penalty and Lawson got off with a warning, keeping his position of eighth. Trouble then seemed to follow him into the Grand Prix. A strong start off the line led to him tangling with Piastri later on in that same lap. Both Lawson and his teammate appeared to come out unscathed. No investigation followed suit for the pair, leaving them to race without a possible penalty looming over their heads.
Similar to his teammate, he gained a few places following the struggles of certain front runners. His pace compared to the other midfielders is what put him in the right place at the right time. He equalled his best finish of sixth, this season, when the checkered flag came.
The Midfield Team To Beat
Racing Bulls leave Silverstone just one singular point behind Alpine. The Italian-based team have had incredible car performance over the last five races with points scored in each round.
An upgrade package in Canada seemed to be a game changer for the midfield team. A gap that was slowly getting bigger, following Gasly’s third place in Monaco, has come right down again as the team find key performance. Performance evident in their P6 and P7 result in Silverstone.
In Visa Cash App Racing Bull’s race report, Lawson expressed that since the upgrades underwent high-speed balance testing in the race in Barcelona, they have “felt really good each weekend since.”
They will now look to capitalise on their momentum heading to Spa-Francorchamps. The Sister team will hope to be best of the rest once again and steal Alpine’s fifth place in the standings.