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Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today I’m really looking forward to the Dutch Grand Prix and this coming weekend.
Firstly, because I’m getting married — so it’ll be Patrick Iversen in your inboxes next week when we shift back to our regular newsletter cadence. And, of course, because the F1 championship is back in action after a long summer break.
I think my fiancé Emily will be happy with the order of those references …
I’m Alex, and Luke Smith will be along later.
The Return: Lawson gets (temporary) Red Bull call-up
There’s something about Liam Lawson, big breaks and the Dutch GP.
Three years ago, the New Zealander made his F1 debut at Zandvoort for a team then called AlphaTauri — now Racing Bulls — after Daniel Ricciardo broke his hand in a practice crash.
This weekend, Lawson was called up to race for Red Bull from Racing Bulls, after Isack Hadjar sustained a wrist injury over summer break.
Hadjar, a keen boxer, reportedly sustained his injury punching a sandbag as part of his summer training. (Obviously.)
Last week, I touched on the pressure Lawson’s facing regarding his long-term F1 future. Now, Lawson has received a huge vote of confidence from his Red Bull benefactors. He is about to do something no Red Bull driver has ever done before: return to the senior Red Bull team after being demoted back to the junior squad.
For Lawson, the ruthless demotion last year happened just two races into the 2025 campaign.
Now, yes, his rise back is only happening through specific and unfortunate circumstances — with every indication that Hadjar will keep his place alongside Max Verstappen for 2027. But it still stands out as very different from what has come before.
Perhaps if the unrelenting Red Bull F1 old guard of Christian Horner and Helmut Marko were still in charge, then it would be Arvid Lindblad stepping up from Racing Bulls right now. They favored such rapid promotions and getting the chance to assess a young driver in the toughest F1 test: being Verstappen’s teammate.
But that new Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies has selected Lawson instead is revealing. It shows a new mentality — one not afforded to Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Ricciardo or Daniil Kvyat in previous eras.
And a healthier mentality at that.
(FWIW, Red Bull’s F1 history actually started with swapping junior drivers Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi between races in 2005, but that’s very different from the cold indifference shown to those four drivers above — plus Yuki Tsunoda, with more on him to come — once they were dropped from the main team’s lineup in the modern era.)
Lawson has been driving very well this year, even around Lindblad’s searing qualifying speed in what is a good Racing Bulls car.
A good Zandvoort result — such as his first Red Bull points after his awful two-race stint there last year before he was replaced by Tsunoda — would go a long way to ensuring Lawson’s place in the Red Bull F1 fold for 2027.
This would keep current Formula 2 points leader and Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov on the outside looking in, but as I argued last week, the Bulgarian racer has time on his side.
Now, over to Luke to explain why Red Bull hasn’t recalled Tsunoda to replace Hadjar, even though he is the team’s reserve driver.
Inside the Paddock with Luke Smith: Why didn’t Red Bull go back to Tsunoda?
Tsunoda will be excited to get back on the F1 grid at Zandvoort. But is there a case to be made that he should be driving the Red Bull car, not the Racing Bulls car?
Although Tsunoda’s performances didn’t set the world on fire in 22 races last year on Red Bull’s top team, which led to Hadjar replacing him for this year, Red Bull saw enough to retain him as its official reserve driver.
Yet now the team is in need of a replacement, and it opted for Lawson instead. That’s despite Tsunoda having more F1 experience (111 starts overall to Lawson’s 46) and more recent knowledge of a Red Bull car.
So, why Lawson?
Well, his form this year has been sparkling, leading Racing Bulls efforts and looking the most confident he’s ever been in F1.
His rookie teammate, Lindblad, has posed close competition, but Lawson has finished ahead in all but two races both drivers have finished.
Crucially, Lawson also has racing experience with the 2026 cars that are vastly different to those Tsunoda drove in 2025. The learning curve for Tsunoda would be much steeper, even if Lawson also needs to adjust to the Red Bull car.
As much as Lawson will want to use this opportunity to prove how much he has grown since his shock Red Bull demotion, it’s really a chance to remind the F1 world of what he can do, and why he would deserve to be back on the grid in 2027.
Back to you, Alex.
Feedback Loop: How you ranked the drivers so far in 2026
In last week’s PT, I asked you to rank the F1 drivers based on their performances so far this season, after Luke and Madeline Coleman released their combined top 10 drivers so far.
Your results are in, and your top drivers are:
Kimi Antonelli
Lewis Hamilton
Max Verstappen
Lando Norris
Charles Leclerc
George Russell
Oscar Piastri
Isack Hadjar
Liam Lawson
Pierre Gasly
Arvid Lindblad
Franco Colapinto
Ollie Bearman
Gabriel Bortoleto
Carlos Sainz
Alex Albon
Nico Hülkenberg
Esteban Ocon
Fernando Alonso
Sergio Pérez
Valtteri Bottas
Lance Stroll
(One thing to note: Everyone who responded was voting on the whole field, not just picking a top 10 like Luke and Madeline.)
My main takeaways:
In comparison to Luke and Madeline, who had Hamilton fifth, the British Ferrari driver is the biggest gainer, leaping to No. 2.
McLaren’s Norris was the biggest faller. He dropped from second in our rankings to fourth in yours.
Everyone else in the top 10 was pretty much in the same order.
Of those drivers only PT readers voted on, 16th seems harsh for Sainz — even with his Piastri-bashing while being lapped last time out in Hungary.
But 20th, 21st and 22nd seems spot on for Pérez, Bottas and Stroll, respectively.
Thanks to everyone who voted in last week’s PT poll. We’ll have a final 2026 driver rankings — and team report card grades — at the end of the season.
Outside the Points
📝 Sainz and Albon will continue to race for Williams in 2027, and as teammates for a third successive season, with fresh contract statuses announced on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
⛏ Luke dug further into Cadillac’s sudden predicaments, just five months into its first F1 season.
⚡ I visited the London E-Prix to get Formula E’s response to catching strays from Verstappen in the four-time world champion’s vocal campaign railing against F1’s new engines earlier this year.
🇮🇹 Luke also revealed how Mercedes is keeping Antonelli so grounded around all his success this year, with an in-depth interview with the team’s outgoing junior driver scout.
👩💻 And Madeline and I answered reader questions on the season so far in this special summer mailbag.
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