Liam Lawson is not chasing the unofficial Bathurst lap record when he takes to Mount Panorama at the wheel of the Red Bull RB7 Formula 1 car.
The New Zealander is set to head out on track between qualifying sessions today as part of a demonstration run.
It’s only the second time a (comparatively) contemporary Formula 1 machinery will have lapped Mount Panorama following Jenson Button and Craig Lowndes driving a McLaren MP4-23 in 2011.
Back then, the 2009 world champion logged an unofficial lap time of 1:48.8s, to this day the fastest lap ever recorded on the Mountain.
At the wheel of the championship-winning car from 2011, that time could be at risk today, though Lawson played down the prospect.
“It’s a demonstration moment,” Lawson told Speedcafe.com.
“Its not a lap record attempt that we’re doing.
“For me, there’s obviously no pressure on that – I get to go out an enjoy the 20-minute slot that we have and how people the car, show them the noise, what it looks like, potentially a few donuts.
“We’re not here to set any records.”
That doesn’t mean that he will drive gently, with the 20-year-old promising to hold the throttle flat down Conrod Straight.
“Over parts of the lap, I’ll definitely push in certain sections, but I’m not going to push a whole lot for record attempts.
“The car is not set up for that anyway,” he added.
“It’s a demonstration. As much as I’d like to…
“It’s to show people what the car sounds like, [what] it looks like.
“I going to go quick [on a] few quick parts of the track but to push a whole lap around here everything needs to be set up properly for that.
“And for me having never been here as well, even if the car was set up for that, it would a bit eye opener to try and do that.”
Lawson put his hand up for the opportunity when the Bathurst outing was first discussed as a possibility.
It marks the first time he will have driven the circuit outside of a simulator.
“It’s funny because when I heard about this project. that was that was coming about, I put my name forward like, ‘Guys, please put me in the car’.
“Obviously, I live in New Zealand, and I’ve been there at the moment – I’m only three hours away, so it really fit perfectly for me.
“I’ve driven this place on simulators – I’ve never done in real life but I’ve done it on sim racing a lot – and you do the typical V8 Supercar laps around here, you do GT3 laps and then occasionally, you’ll jump on with your mates and go, ‘let’s do something crazy and let’s try a Formula 1 car around Bathurst’. It never ends well!
“To do it in real life, especially for me first time around this around this place, it’s going to be an experience.”
Lawson heads out on track between Qualifying 1 at 2 at 13:25 AEDT today.
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