Liam Lawson details team-mate priority in new Racing Bulls partnership

Liam Lawson has insisted maintaining a strong communication link with new team-mate Arvid Linbdlad will be key to Racing Bulls' season.

Lindblad has received a promotion to F1 this year and will be the sport's only rookie driver for the upcoming season.

He joins Lawson at the Red Bull sister team, who got their campaign up and running at the Barcelona shakedown this week.

Given he is the more experienced driver in the line-up, Lawson will be leaned on more to steer the direction of car development, which is likely to prove crucial this year as F1 enters a new cycle of technical regulations.

When asked to assess his relationship with Lindblad, Lawson said: “So far it has been good.

“It’s a very different year to come into F1 with these cars.

“So obviously for us, it's important to communicate well and work together on trying to build this car as quick as possible. So far, it’s been good.”

Racing Bulls did not take to the track on Friday as it completed its three days of running prior to the final day of action.

Next up for the team is pre-season testing in Bahrain in just under two weeks' time.

Describing what will be on the team's agenda, Lawson said: “Honestly, just to keep learning.

“It’s so early days at the moment, we're going to go to Bahrain on a very different track with very different climate as well.

“It’s gonna be very, very different. It's going be great for us to learn how the car performs at very different places, different tracks.

“Outside of that, the main goal is to just try and keep learning and improving the car and discovering what we can.”