Alan Permane reveals how Arvid Lindblad landed up with updates in F1 Belgian GP over Liam Lawson, despite the Kiwi being higher Racing Bulls driver in the drivers’ standings.
Usually, the F1 teams want the updates to be put on both cars together, rather than one of them. It is always a difficult choice if they can only prepare one. Racing Bulls found itself in a dilemma with their latest spec for the Belgian GP weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.
For most, the higher driver in the F1 drivers’ standings gets the priority. Lawson is 10th with 39 points, while rookie Lindblad is not far behind in 11th with 20 points. As such, the Kiwi should have had the chance to the updates first, but it is being run on the Brit’s car for this weekend.
Higher driver in drivers’ standings usually gets the updates
Lawson will get it from F1 Hungarian GP onward. But how did they arrive at the decision? Racing Bulls chief Permane revealed that he sat down with his drivers during Austrian GP and proposed few ideas. One of them was to defer it to Hungary for both to use, which naturally did not receive any votes.
The other was that whoever qualifies ahead of each other in F1 British GP, he will get the updates. As such, Lindblad (P9) qualified ahead of Lawson (P10) by 0.411s, to win the mini battle. While both of them carry the revised rear wing, front brake drum and redesigned engine cover in Belgian GP, the Brit’s car has extra updates, with a cooling package installed.
Permane spills on how Racing Bulls selected Lindblad over Lawson
“It’s not so easy, and honestly, we don’t like bringing updates for just one car,” said Permane in F1 Belgian GP press conference. “It was impossible for us to do it to two cars. It’s a chassis modification. We had to shrink the whole hoop, and we just couldn’t do that in time between Silverstone and here on both cars. What I did is I sat down with both drivers, I think it was in Austria on Saturday evening.
“We’d had a very good qualifying. I thought, “Okay, while everyone’s in a good mood, I’ll give some bad news. We’ve got a good update coming, but we can only do one car for Spa, and the next car will be done for the race after in Budapest. So, I first suggested that the very simple option that makes it fair is 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 that we can flip a coin, or we can make it a little bit of fun and say whoever qualifies in front at Silverstone gets the upgrade. They both signed up for that, and that’s what we did.”
Lawson will get the next Racing Bulls update before Lindblad
“I think what we’ll do if it happens again later in the season, and it may happen later because we’ve got another big thing coming at some point, is it will go to Liam. We won’t do that again. 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,” summed up Permane.
As the Racing Bulls chief noted, Lawson will get preference for their next update, if they only have one at hand. Despite the slight package difference, both finished close to each other after Friday practice, with Lindblad ahead of the Kiwi in both the sessions.
Permane acknowledges close Racing Bulls pairing
They have been close pretty much all-season, even gifting some radio gems, especially in Austria. Lawson is amid a fine run in 2026, after an up and down time in F1 seasons gone by. At the same time, Lindblad has burst into the scene with a good show for himself as the only rookie on the grid.
It is good, not just for Racing Bulls but also Red Bull. “Yeah, it’s good to have two quick guys, that’s for sure,” said Permane. “I’m sure there’ll be some management needed. They’re incredibly close. If we look this morning (FP1), their ideal laps are separated by milliseconds, so it’s going to be nip and tuck, I’m sure, all year.”
Racing Bulls sit well in sixth with 59 points in constructors’ standings, only one point behind Alpine. Permane notes that they started with their updates in Melbourne and the ones in Montreal and Austria, solidified their pace for both qualifying and the races, to make it an all-round car in the midfield.
