Red Bull juniors Vips and Lawson to make F1 practice debuts in 2022

For this season, all 10 teams are required to run a rookie driver in at least two Friday practice sessions.

The rookie driver must have completed fewer than two F1 grands prix.

Estonian driver Vips will drive the Red Bull RB18 in 2022, while Lawson will get his hands on AlphaTauri’s AT03.

Vips remains in F2 for another season, staying with Hitech Grand Prix after finishing sixth in the final standings.

Lawson finished ninth in F2 with one victory to his name and also missed out on the DTM title in a dramatic finale. 

He will race for Carlin alongside Williams F1 junior Logan Sargeant.

They are just two of five Red Bull-backed drivers in F2 with Dennis Hauger, Jehan Daruvala and Ayumu Iwasa competing in the series.

Hauger is the reigning F3 champion and is likely to be a strong force this season given that he’s driving for Prema.

“It will be Liam Lawson,” Tost said when asked who would drive for AlphaTauri in practice this year.

“And of course, this is also a decision from Red Bull. Currently, the drivers are Liam Lawson and Vips, I think that Vips will drive for Red Bull Racing and Lawson for Scuderia Alpha Tauri.

“He was also testing with us last year in Abu Dhabi, he did a good job, he is driving this year in Formula 2 and then we will see what the next steps will be.”