Crimson Bull have discovered from previous errors to not put an excessive amount of stress on rookies, their former driver Christian Klien believes.
Liam Lawson will begin his first full season as a Method 1 driver this 12 months at Crimson Bull. He’ll go up towards four-times world champion Max Verstappen, who has overwhelmingly crushed every of his final three workforce mates: Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon and Sergio Perez.
Klien, who raced for Crimson Bull throughout their first season in F1, mentioned Crimson Bull had no alternative however to exchange Perez. “For me, it was fairly clear they needed to change one thing,” he told The Business of Winning. “Checo simply sadly didn’t ship anymore.
“He had a good time at Crimson Bull Racing, however the final one-and-a-half years, it simply didn’t click on anymore. Mentally I feel it was a tough state of affairs for him so that they needed to change one thing.”
Crimson Bull handed over their extra skilled junior driver Yuki Tsunoda, who enters his fifth season in F1 this 12 months, to advertise 23-year-old Lawson, who has solely began 11 grands prix. Nevertheless Klien, who was 21 on the time of his F1 debut, mentioned he “can perceive” Crimson Bull’s resolution.
He mentioned Lawson should anticipate to play second fiddle to Verstappen in his first 12 months in F1. “For Liam, in the event you get this chance, it’s important to seize it with with each palms. Everyone’s dream is to drive in a high workforce and a high automobile. The issue is you’re driving subsequent to Max Verstappen.
“That’s now all the way down to him. I feel he has the expertise, he’s a extremely fast driver, he confirmed this. He can adapt in a short time. I feel he’s additionally mentally sturdy. However he has to go at this in a really intelligent manner, I feel.
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“He shouldn’t go into Crimson Bull Racing and suppose ‘I can beat Max Verstappen’ as a result of I don’t suppose early on in his profession that’s doable. He must be an important quantity two driver, let’s say, now, be taught from the very best that Max Verstappen is for the time being and his time can come sooner or later. So once more, it’s actually thrilling to see this 12 months how he’ll deal with the state of affairs and the way Crimson Bull Racing as a workforce helps him on this position subsequent to Max Verstappen.”
Klien believes Crimson Bull have anticipated an excessive amount of from their junior drivers previously, together with Daniil Kvyat, who they dropped early in 2016 to make manner for Verstappen.
“I hope they don’t put an excessive amount of stress [on] him,” mentioned Klien. “They made the error with Kvyat, with Albon, et cetera. I feel they discovered from it.
“What they want is a second driver who scores factors they usually can go for the constructors’ championship once more.”
When Klien drove for Crimson Bull in 2005, the workforce took the bizarre resolution to rotate considered one of their seats between him and Vitantonio Liuzzi. Klien mentioned Crimson Bull’s motorsport guide Helmut Marko later accepted this had been an error.
“It made it very tough,” mentioned Klien. “Tonio and myself have been sharing the automobile not solely within the first couple of races, but additionally in testing. So we had half of the working off of David Coulthard, for instance.
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“However that was a call that was made by Helmut Marko and we made the very best out of it in the long run. Fortunately in a while I acquired promoted to do the remainder of the season, which was essential not just for myself but additionally for the workforce, since you can not have three drivers in two automobiles, it simply [doesn’t] work.
“I [was] fairly completely satisfied to listen to Helmut Marko a few years again, he got here as much as me and mentioned Christian, I feel that was fairly a mistake that I did there, that you just guys shared the automobile. So I’m completely satisfied that he realised it.”
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