Red Bull Racing has let a Formula 1 car loose around Mount Panorama.
The 2011 RB7 Formula 1 car was driven by Liam Lawson around Bathurst on Saturday, as part of the 12 Hour program.
“The first lap was honestly very daunting going up the hill with all the elevation, and I was quite nervous,” Lawson told SpeedCafe.
“But by the second lap I actually got quite comfortable and the car was really good, so I loved it.
“At points it was a bit rough, but for a Formula 1 car on this place, I expected it to be worse, just felt cool, just felt really cool.”
With stops for burnouts and donuts, the championship-winning racer was a winner with the crowd… but it wasn’t the fastest Formula 1 car to take on The Mountain.
That honour belongs to the McLaren-Mercedes MP4-23, which lapped the circuit in 1:48.8 with Jenson Button behind the wheel to set an unofficial record.
Craig Lowndes, who at the time was racing in a Vodafone-liveried V8 Supercar at the time, was only a second slower during his stint in the F1 car.
The official lap record at Mount Panorama belongs to Christopher Mies, who set a 1:59.2910 in the 2018 Challenge Bathurst sprint behind the wheel of an Audi R8 LMS Ultra.
The fastest in-race lap from a GT3 racer belongs to Shane van Gisbergen, who set a 2:01.567 in at the 2016 12 Hour, and the quickest race lap from a V8 Supercar was Chaz Mostert with a 2:04.7602 in 2019.
