Liam Lawson handed Racing Bulls promise following Belgian GP upgrade hit

Liam Lawson has been promised priority the next time Racing Bulls bring new parts for one car after losing out to team-mate Arvid Lindblad on a major chassis modification at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

Lindblad heads into the race at Spa-Francorchamps with a smaller roll hoop on his car than on Lawson's VCARB03.

With the part only available for one car, team principal Alan Permane needed a way to decide which driver would benefit first. The solution was based around qualifying for the British Grand Prix. Lindblad qualified ninth to Lawson's 10th.

"We don't like bringing updates for just one car," said Permane, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365. "But it was impossible for us to do it to two cars.

"It's a chassis modification. We had to shrink the roll hoop, and we just couldn't do that in the time between Silverstone and here on both cars.

"So what I did is I sat down with both drivers in Austria on Saturday evening. We had a very good qualifying, and I thought, 'Okay, while everyone's in a good mood, I'll give some bad news, that we've got a good update coming, but we can only do it for one car for Spa, and the next car will be done for the race after in Budapest'.

"So I first suggested a very simple option, to make it fair, that we upgrade no cars for Spa, and then both of them for Budapest. Of course, they looked at me like I was crazy, and I wouldn't have ever done that. So we didn't really seriously consider that.

"The next thing I said is 'Look, we can flip a coin, or we can make it a little bit of fun, and whoever qualifies in front in Silverstone gets the upgrade'. They both signed up for that, and that's what we did."

Lindblad delivered, edging Lawson by over four tenths in Q3 to secure ninth on the grid, one place ahead of the New Zealander.

Lawson's car will receive the same upgrade at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest next weekend, ensuring the split-specification arrangement lasts only one race.

Permane also confirmed Lawson will get automatic priority if the situation arises again.

"What we'll do, if it happens again later in the season that we've another big thing coming at some point, is that it will go to Liam, so we won't do that again," added Permane.

"He'll automatically get it the next time. But we tried to put a little bit of fun into it rather than just allocating it to someone."