‘We should have done a better job’ – RB Team Principal Laurent Mekies admits team ‘not happy’ with how Daniel Ricciardo exit was handled

Mekies will now focus on getting Lawson up to speed for the remaining six races of the year – with the New Zealander having already contested five race weekends for the squad back in 2023, as a replacement for the injured Ricciardo – with Mekies saying he was pleased with how Lawson had performed so far after his call-up.

“He has been doing a very good job,” said Mekies. “He has been waiting for this moment for a very long time now – he’s been sitting with us in the office since Race 1. It’s a very long time for drivers when you don’t have another racing programme, just to come to the racetrack and see all the other guys going racing.

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“He has been preparing himself, he has been trying to get all the possible learnings from all the technical meetings, from all the exchanges between Daniel, Yuki [Tsunoda] and the engineers. He jumped in the car this morning [in FP1], he did a very good job straight away.

“I don’t want to say that we were expecting it, but obviously we knew from last year, we knew from what he has shown also in testing that he would be ready and he has shown he’s certainly ready to take on the fight.”