Racing Bulls endured a mixed Friday at the 2026 F1 São Paulo GP, with Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad both struggling with pace and handling issues as the team looks to make improvements ahead of Qualifying.
Lawson led the way for Racing Bulls in FP1, finishing P10 ahead of Lindblad in P14. However, Lindblad turned the tables in FP2 and finished P12, one place ahead of Lawson in P13 as both drivers struggled to break into the top ten. Having consistently impressed and led the midfield fight, Racing Bulls head into the weekend with more performance to find.
Permane: Racing Bulls “struggling” with cornering
Speaking in the print media zone, Team Principal Alan Permane reflected on the team’s Friday, admitting that both drivers struggled with significant balance issues throughout the day.
“Yeah, that’s maybe accurate.”, Permane said. “Certainly I’m not sure it’s balanced; it’s more through corners we’re struggling with a little bit, so on average it’s kind of okay, and then we’ve just got a car that’s understeering a bit too much at the apex but is okay on turning or even a little bit nose on turning, so it’s going to take a bit of work to get it there, and I think we can see that reflected in the times.”
While Permane acknowledged that the team’s long-run pace looked promising, he believes they have more performance to unlock over a single lap to take the fight to Audi.
“We’re missing a tenth or two, and normally on a Friday afternoon we’re quite comfortably inside the top 10, and we have been for the last few, and we see the Audi of Gabi [Bortoleto] is just a little bit away; however, when we put the fuel in and do the long runs, we look fine, we look absolutely fine, so I think we’re okay. We’ve just got to find a little bit on low fuel.”
Permane admits Racing Bulls is still “missing a little bit of pace”
“I don’t think it changes, honestly; it’s still the same in terms of percentage terms, so yes, it is a short lap. It makes Q1 maybe a bit more stressful because everything’s tight, and we’ve been going through Q1 on one set.”, Permane said when asked whether a shorter circuit would tighten the field and influence which drivers progress to Q2 and Q3.
He acknowledged that while a shorter circuit could make qualifying more stressful, smaller lap times leave less room for error. However, Permane stressed that Racing Bulls’ main concern was not the circuit’s length but rather their lack of outright pace.
“And I think you have to be brave here to do it because, as I say, if the percentage is the same, the lap time you’re looking at is, instead of being six tenths clear, maybe we’re only four tenths clear, and that’s a little bit stressful, but no, I think our problem isn’t that shortness; it’s just that we’re missing a little bit of pace.”
Confident heading into potentially wet weather running
With the weather forecast expected to change significantly by Sunday and the threat of rain looming, teams and drivers face considerable uncertainty heading into the main race. Having completed significant running in wet conditions, Permane expressed confidence in the team’s ability to perform should rain arrive on Sunday.
“Yeah, tomorrow it’s forecast to be quite hot as well but Sunday yes you’re right a little less so.”, he said. “Well, we ran very well in Malaysia, we ran very well in Singapore but you’re right they’re much hotter ambience and track temps. Maybe not track temps in Singapore because it was at night so it wouldn’t have been much hotter.”
Permane added: “We ran a tyre test in Suzuka after the race which was a dry tyre test but actually rained. Yeah, we did quite a lot of wet running there, and that was fine, so the wet will be okay.”
Lawson admits setup changes worsened car handling
Reflecting on Friday’s running, Lawson felt the team made a reasonably strong start in FP1 before taking a step backwards in FP2. The New Zealander hopes to return to a setup closer to what they started with, while acknowledging that the unpredictable weather could influence their approach for the remainder of the weekend.
“Yeah, I mean we started a little bit stronger this morning, and then we tried something that didn’t really work in [F]P2, and also when it got a lot colder, the stuff we changed honestly was in the opposite direction for that, so it didn’t really help.”
“We’ll probably go back on that. I think we had a better car this morning. Try to start with something similar tomorrow and then, yeah, we’ll see what happens with the weather because it’s probably going to rain.”
Lawson admitted that the setup changes had made a greater impact on performance than they expected, leaving him with one of the worst car balances he has experienced this year. While the team plans to revert some of those changes, he stressed the importance of maintaining a setup that performs well in both dry and wet conditions.
“I think so. I think we’re pretty surprised by how much of an effect what we changed did because the car was probably one of the worst balances we’ve had this season, or at least in the recent races in P2.”, Lawson said. “But a big factor is that track temp; when it comes down, we just had so much understeer in the car.”
“So yeah, we’ll try and revert on that tomorrow, try and improve it. But obviously we can’t change anything drastically because if it rains, you need to have a good car out in the rain as well.”
“Putting the lap together” in Qualifying key to success for remainder of weekend
“Putting the lap together. Yeah, basically doing a good job.”, Lawson said when asked what could make the difference around the 4.309km circuit.
“I think it’s very, very tough here. Also, tyres. The lap’s really short for warm-up as well, so we’re struggling to get everything properly ready for Turn 1.”
“Any traffic, queuing in the pit lane on track, it can really, really affect Turn 1. So yeah, it’s going to be interesting tomorrow, especially Q1, when everybody’s on track together. But yeah, the bigger question mark is going to be the rain.”
