As far as ruthless drivers swaps go, Red Bull truly outdid itself when it stripped Liam Lawson of his RB21 seat alongside Max Verstappen after just two – admittedly woeful – weekends, crashing out in Melbourne from 18th on the grid, and qualifying dead last for both China’s sprint and grand prix.
Helmut Marko and Christian Horner felt Lawson’s two abysmal weekends in Australia and China were so severe that his season was threatening to spiral out of control, while the New Zealander argued he simply needed a lot more time in the seat and that a lack of confidence in his own driving was never the real issue.
“I would have liked to have thought that with the right amount of time, I would have got my head around it honestly,” Lawson reflected. “Two races was… I honestly don’t even really remember them. But a lot of things have happened this year that have made me a lot stronger.”
Lawson understandably felt hard done by when he was swapped with Yuki Tsunoda, but the 23-year-old had little time to dwell on such a brutal demotion as he dove headfirst into the next race with his new team in Suzuka, the start of a 22-race spell alongside promising rookie Isack Hadjar. It proved a career-defining stint to secure his future as Red Bull mulled over which of its five drivers (including F2 ace Arvid Lindblad) to distribute over its four 2026 cars.
Liam Lawson’s stint with Red Bull Racing was short-lived
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Hadjar’s headstart on Lawson, by having done the full pre-season and the first two weekends, gave the Frenchman a leg up at the start. And while he proved the quicker of the two over one lap, by an ever-dwindling margin, Lawson did manage to find a stable performance platform and gradually worked his way back to the required form to earn an extended stay at Racing Bulls.
“Liam has done a fantastic job – he’s stabilised over the season, his race pace is consistently very strong,” team CEO Peter Bayer said in Abu Dhabi.
Lawson has now competed in 35 grands prix, but still hasn’t had the luxury of completing a full campaign for the same team. The 2026 season will give him that chance, and with it the opportunity to dispel any lingering doubts about his staying power.
“I can look back on the year, and I think we’ve definitely found a lot of progress through the year,” he reflected. “I can confidently say I’m in a much more comfortable position now than I was, especially when I first made the switch earlier in the season.
“Obviously, you’re just playing catch-up, and, yeah, as the season went on, I got a lot more comfortable. From a stats point of view, it’s got a lot better, obviously. But from a personal side, there’s just things that I’ll always look back on and learn from.”
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