Latest news with #LaurentMekies
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Automotive
- RNZ News
F1: Liam Lawson energised to perform in Austrian GP
New Zealand F1 driver Liam Lawson. Photo: Eric Alonso / PHOTOSPORT Liam Lawson and Racing Bulls are likely to face similar issues they had in Canada a fortnight ago when they take on the Austrian F1 Grand Prix this weekend. Racing Bulls were well out of the points in Montreal and the team will hopefully have fixed any issues in the time since. Racing Bulls admitted they lacked pace to challenge for the top ten in Canada with team principal Laurent Mekies hoping they could change that in time for Austria after some work back at the team base in Britain. Lawson's cause wasn't helped when he was forced to start from the pit lane after the team made some changes to his power unit. Unfortunately, cooling issues forced him to retire late in the race. He can only hope the car is at its best because Red Bull Ring is a unique circuit where the margins become even finer. It is one of the shortest and fastest circuits on the calendar with drivers completing a lap in just over a minute. It has just ten corners, but has three DRS zones allowing for overtaking. The downforce setting becomes critical to balance the speed of the straights and the grip needed on the fast corners. Lawson has raced there a number of times in junior categories. "I've really enjoyed the track, but obviously in F1 it will bring an entirely new pressure," Lawson said. "I'm coming into this weekend with fresh energy following Canada and am ready to fight for points with the team." Both Lawson and Isack Hadjar have spent a lot of time in the simulator since Canada, while chief technical officer Tim Goss said they'll "take forward some further setup adjustments to maximise the car's capabilities". Qualifying will again be the key to picking up points. Lawson has made the third part of qualifying just once this season and that was in Monaco when he went on to grab his only points. Meanwhile, Red Bull have confirmed that British youngster Arvid Lindblad will get his first grand prix weekend outing at the British GP at Silverstone next week. The 17 year old obtained his FIA Superlicence earlier this month. Lindblad, who won the Formula Regional Oceania Championship in New Zealand last summer and currently races in F2, will be involved during Friday practice at Silverstone. Until now Ayumu Iwasa has been the only reserve driver for both Red Bull and Racing Bulls.
RNZ News
16-06-2025
- Automotive
- RNZ News
Liam Lawson: 'It's been a tough, tough weekend'
New Zealand driver Liam Lawson at the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix. Photo: Eric Alonso / PHOTOSPORT New Zealand driver Liam Lawson has had to endure another tough weekend in Formula One. Lawson failed to finish Monday's Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. After qualifying at the back of the field, the young Kiwi was forced out with 14 laps remaining with technical issues with his Racing Bulls car. "It's just been a tough, tough weekend which is a shame," Lawson said afterwards. He was forced to start his first Canadian GP from pit lane after his team made changes to his power unit post qualifying. The 23-year-old was put on a one pit-stop strategy but was unable to make inroads on the field. He was eventually told to retire the car as it was suffering from cooling problems. It is the third race he's failed to finish this season. "It's disappointing, obviously it was going to be a very difficult race anyway from the pit lane. "We had a cooling issue at the end so unfortunately we had to retire." Photo: GEOFF ROBINS His Racing Bulls team-mate Isack Hadjar also struggled with pace and finished 16th, with just Lance Stroll behind him. "The hard fact is that we didn't have enough pace today to fight in the top 10," Team Principal Laurent Mekies said. "It's a tight battle in the midfield and even only one-tenth can make the difference, and today it was enough to drop back instead of attacking forward." By not picking up any points Racing Bulls slip further behind Williams in the Constructors' Championship and now sit in seventh place on the same points as Haas. With Fernando Alonso finishing seventh for Aston Martin they are now just six points behind Racing Bulls. Lawson is 18th in the Drivers' Championship with the four points he picked up with his eighth-place finish at Monaco. "We'll keep working on the speed and I'll keep working on myself to reset ahead of Austria," Lawson said. Round eleven is in Austria at the end of the month. "Looking back at the last few months, every single improvement we've made as a team has been made after tough weekends like this one in Canada. We certainly take some positives from this weekend and the fight is on, so we'll keep pushing all together," Mekies said.
Top Gear
13-06-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Isack Hadjar's impressive F1 start has surprised his own team
Interview Even RB's bosses can't believe the rookie has been this good this quickly Skip 6 photos in the image carousel and continue reading Isack Hadjar might well be the standout F1 rookie of 2025: not only has he survived being a Red Bull junior driver for longer than five minutes, the 20-year-old Frenchman has reached Q3 six times and outscored his more experienced teammate(s) by 21 points to four so far. Magnifique! That's partly down to a best finish of sixth in Monaco, which – let's be real here – isn't exactly a safe, cuddly environment for infant F1 drivers still learning how to walk. Even Max Verstappen had a couple of big crashes in Monte Carlo before he properly mastered it. Advertisement - Page continues below But Hadjar nailed it first time, and heading into Canada this weekend he's now on a run of three straight top 10 finishes. Not even his own team thought he'd hit the ground running like this. 'If we were telling you that we were expecting that, we would be lying,' says team principal Laurent Mekies, sitting down with TG at the Miami Grand Prix a few weeks ago. CEO Peter Bayer chips in: 'We would have signed him last year!' You might like Advertisement - Page continues below But while the global spotlight was beaming down on the second Red Bull seat, hardly anyone was paying attention to who'd end up in the 'other' RB. And Hadjar's number one fan at the time? Only Red Bull's never-sugar-coat-anything motorsport adviser, Helmut Marko. 'In all fairness, Helmut already last year said he did [expect Hadjar to be fast],' says Bayer. 'He was adamant about it. 'He is the kid that will have the speed, that will have the confidence, that will have the ability', and he was very, very clear from probably halfway through the season when the Daniel discussion started. 'Helmut said 'Look, for me it's no doubt: [signing him is] what we have to do'.' Surprised? You'll remember that Hadjar's first race ended in tears – literally – after he crashed out on the formation lap in Australia back in March, and Marko later called his emotions 'embarrassing'. Which wasn't brilliant PR. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox. But Bayer – who, like Marko, is Austrian – reckons the 82-year-old sounded harsher than intended because he'd been interviewed in German. 'What he said, the word does not directly translate into 'embarrassing', actually,' he explains. 'It's one level below, and it's something that you would use in your family more than in an official statement.' Mekies adds: 'The truth is, Helmut was the biggest supporter of Isack from day one. He's probably the one that was the least surprised by how extraordinary he's been. 'And already in Melbourne, all of us, including Helmut, were massively, massively impressed by how he had performed on Friday and on Saturday. 'So, the comment is the comment. But if you had asked him at the end of the Melbourne weekend to rate this first weekend in terms of speed, it would have been sky high.' Visa Cash App Racing Bulls' line-up (that's the only time we'll write the name out in full, we promise) looks fairly settled for now, but recent form suggests there only has to be a medium-sized crisis somewhere along the ladder for that to change. How does the team help Lawson bounce back from being chewed up by the senior squad? 'It's no different with Liam than with all the other guys,' says Mekies. 'All we do all day is try to build an environment where our people – drivers, engineers, staff – can express themselves at best. And that's what we're trying to do with Liam.' At this precise moment Hadjar and Lawson tiptoe past RB's Hard Rock Stadium hospitality tent, each carrying... a giant water pistol. As you do. Team bonding in action? 'That's what they need!' laughs Bayer, and Mekies quips: 'It's probably part of the programme!' He carries on: 'But yeah, in the end there is some truth in it, you know? You need to feel good to perform well. And it's not only for the drivers, it's for everyone. And these guys, they need to be able to push in the car, and if they are not comfortable in the car to push then the performance will not come. 'So what we are focused on right now is just to make sure we are able to give him a car he's able to push with. If he is able to push, we think the speed level will be the right one.'
Al Bawaba
06-06-2025
- Business
- Al Bawaba
Visa Cash App Racing Bulls (VCARB) Formula One™ Team Accelerates Racing Car Design with Neural Concept's Engineering AI
Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula One™ Team has deployed Neural Concept, the world's leading AI platform for engineering design to accelerate the team's car design and optimize aerodynamic performance through AI-powered, data-driven engineering workflows that enable faster design iteration and better-informed Concept's proprietary Engineering AI platform complements traditional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) with high-speed predictive simulations. Engineers can use digital twins to evaluate thousands of design variants across complex 'multi-physics' environments that mimic real-world track conditions such as wind and temperature enables VCARB to explore more designs, unlocking new performance gains within every Mekies, Team Principal, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls said: 'In Formula One, every millisecond counts and innovation at the design stage can be the difference between leading the pack or falling behind. By integrating Neural Concept's cutting-edge Engineering AI into our aerodynamic development, we're unlocking new levels of speed and precision in our design process. This partnership allows us to explore more design variants, ultimately giving us a competitive edge where it matters most.'Pierre Baqué, CEO and co-founder of Neural Concept said: 'Formula One is the ultimate proving ground for Engineering Intelligence—where engineering decisions are pushed to their limits and every performance gain counts. At Neural Concept, our mission is to revolutionize engineering with deep learning and unlock a new symbiotic collaboration between human expertise and AI's analytic speed and power. This partnership with Visa Cash App Racing Bulls demonstrates how AI-driven design workflows can turn weeks of iteration into days, helping teams move faster, explore further, and stay ahead in the most competitive engineering environment on the planet.' Neural Concept platform is trusted by over 70 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 engineering teams around the world including Bosch, General Motors, Airbus, OPmobility and integrates seamlessly with partner engineering solution ecosystems including NVIDIA and Siemens. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba ( Signal PressWire is the world's largest independent Middle East PR distribution service.
Business Upturn
05-06-2025
- Business
- Business Upturn
Visa Cash App Racing Bulls (VCARB) Formula One™ Team Accelerates Racing Car Design with Neural Concept's Engineering AI
London, United Kingdom: Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula One™ Team has deployed Neural Concept, the world's leading AI platform for engineering design to accelerate the team's car design and optimize aerodynamic performance through AI-powered, data-driven engineering workflows that enable faster design iteration and better-informed decisions. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: Visa Cash App Red Bull – Racing Bulls and Neural Concept AI F1 vehicle partnership Neural Concept's proprietary Engineering AI platform complements traditional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) with high-speed predictive simulations. Engineers can use digital twins to evaluate thousands of design variants across complex 'multi-physics' environments that mimic real-world track conditions such as wind and temperature differences. This enables VCARB to explore more designs, unlocking new performance gains within every iteration. Laurent Mekies, Team Principal, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls said: 'In Formula One, every millisecond counts and innovation at the design stage can be the difference between leading the pack or falling behind. By integrating Neural Concept's cutting-edge Engineering AI into our aerodynamic development, we're unlocking new levels of speed and precision in our design process. This partnership allows us to explore more design variants, ultimately giving us a competitive edge where it matters most.' Pierre Baqué, CEO and co-founder of Neural Concept said: 'Formula One is the ultimate proving ground for Engineering Intelligence—where engineering decisions are pushed to their limits and every performance gain counts. At Neural Concept, our mission is to revolutionize engineering with deep learning and unlock a new symbiotic collaboration between human expertise and AI's analytic speed and power. This partnership with Visa Cash App Racing Bulls demonstrates how AI-driven design workflows can turn weeks of iteration into days, helping teams move faster, explore further, and stay ahead in the most competitive engineering environment on the planet.' Neural Concept platform is trusted by over 70 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 engineering teams around the world including Bosch, General Motors, Airbus, OPmobility and integrates seamlessly with partner engineering solution ecosystems including NVIDIA and Siemens. About Neural Concept Est. 2018, Neural Concept provides a leading end-to-end platform that places AI at the center of the product development process to revolutionize how engineers conceptualize, design, and validate products. Neural Concept's flagship technology empowers engineering teams with 3D generative engineering, predictive analysis, and collaborative AI workflows, helping world-class teams reduce development times by up to 75% and improve product characteristics including efficiency, safety, speed, and aerodynamics. Empowering engineers to accelerate work by 10x. Partnered with 40% of the largest European and Asian OEMs and 25% of the world's top 100 Tier-1 suppliers. Neural Concept was born from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), and is backed by world-renowned investors including Forestay Capital and D. E. Shaw Group: Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula One Team: With more than 370 race starts and counting, Red Bull's Italian Formula One team has been one of the sport's most consistent and important competitors since 2006. Launched as Scuderia Toro Rosso and charged with bringing future champions to the grid, the team was successful in launching the top-level careers of a generation of drivers who have gone on to win races and World Championships in Formula One and beyond. The success continued following the teams' 2020 rebrand as Scuderia AlphaTauri, with victory at the Italian Grand Prix in its first season. Reborn with an expanded mission to battle for the sport's biggest prizes, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls team is powering into a new era of competition at the pinnacle of motorsport. Rights free hi-res images/video View source version on Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with Business Wire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same.
