Lawson praises Permane's approach at Racing Bulls

Liam Lawson believes the stability that recently-appointed Racing Bulls boss Alan Permane has shown by continuing to run things in a similar way to predecessor Laurent Mekies is likely to be key to the team maintaining its form.

Permane was promoted to team principal at Racing Bulls last month after Mekies moved up to Red Bull to replace Christian Horner. It’s the first time Permane has served as a team principal, but the opening two rounds under his leadership have delivered top eight finishes in both Belgium and Hungary, and Lawson believes his new boss has done well to limit the disruption that could have been caused by the change.

“A team needs stability, and anytime that there isn't stability it's a very hard working environment to be in,” Lawson told RACER. “It's hard for the drivers to work with their side of the garage, it's a lot of people, a lot of moving parts in a Formula 1 team, so to have everybody working collectively is just very important.

“I think that was probably the target for Alan coming into Laurent's position, and something he's achieved very well [at Spa-Francorchamps and the Hungaroring], and obviously looks to probably keep carrying on now.”

Permane joined Racing Bulls as racing director at the start of 2024 after having spent his whole Formula 1 career at Enstone – most recently as sporting director for Alpine – prior to that. Lawson sees similarities in the experience that both Permane and Mekies have in F1, and believes their close working relationship also helped with the transition. 

“Because of the position that they've both been in – Alan's position sort of working with Laurent in the last couple of years in sort of a chief position on the engineering side, and they both have engineering backgrounds, they're both technically very advanced," he said.

"And I think honestly, with Alan working alongside Laurent, he's seen exactly how he works, and to be honest not really a lot has changed. I think Alan's approach is just carrying on what Laurent had been doing anyway.

“It’s been working very, very well and so aside from that it's just seeing less of Laurent, seeing him wearing different kit. That’s really the only major difference right now.”