A strange April
The outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East led to the cancellation of the GPs in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, which were supposed to take place this month. For this reason, Formula 1 will not restart its engines until May, when the Miami Grand Prix will be held. A long break that a driver like Lance Stroll has decided to exploit to soon face a new challenge such as the GT World Challenge Europe. The Canadian, however, might not be the only one to compete in a race outside of F1.
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Return home?
The latest rumors have come from journalist James Phelps of MotorRacing 360, who in an interview given to Fox Sports indicated that Liam Lawson, the New Zealand driver for Racing Bulls, could return to his homeland to compete in two races of the Supercars championship as a wildcard. The first would see him busy in Taupō from April 10 to 12, before taking to the track again in Christchurch from April 17 to 19.
The real problem
A plausible hypothesis for Phelps, although there are some obstacles to overcome: “Supercars is considering the possibility of having Liam Lawson participate in one of the races in New Zealand as a wild card – he commented – I can assure you that it is serious… the only problem is that they have to find him a car. At the moment there are no spare cars, so they don’t have one. That’s how serious the situation is: they have contacted several teams asking if they had drivers willing to give up their seat for the weekend. It would be a huge event for the sport if they could get him there, it would have global resonance. Obviously the teams they are contacting are probably not the top ones in the championship, but with this year’s qualifying system, I think every driver in the race thinks they have a chance, and I don’t think anyone is willing to give up their seat.”
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A hope shared by Mark Skaife, present at Fox Sports and winner of five Supercars titles: “From the middle of the grid down, why not consider it? You’re probably not in the fight for the championship. There are a couple of drivers at the bottom of the standings who might ask themselves: ‘Could we turn that car into a Red Bull, a car for Liam Lawson?’ You would still get points for the team, because he would be racing with the same team.”
