For Lawson, those six points earned speak volumes. The 24-year-old has always maintained he would have settled at Red Bull if given the time, sentiment proven by his rise at Racing Bulls.
This weekend, with Hadjar still unavailable, Lawson will drive what should be the final race in his stint as an injury replacement, as Formula One arrives in Madrid for the inaugural Grand Prix in the Spanish capital.
Regardless of what happens, Madrid will see Lawson’s Red Bull race tally climb to three, going past the two he notched in 2025.
However, Red Bull are a very different organisation to the one that Lawson left last year. For a start, the main players culpable in his rapid promotion and demotion – Christian Horner and Dr Helmut Marko – are no longer with the team.
But with his future still to be confirmed beyond this season, the Kiwi maintains his Red Bull woes are well and truly behind him.
“It’s not something I really think too much about,” Lawson said. “It was a very long time ago, it was very early in my Formula One career.
“We had a strong second half of last season, and this year has been very positive. People are going to judge it however they want to.
Liam Lawson at the Dutch Grand Prix. Photo / Red Bull
“But at the end of the day, in whatever car I’m driving, I’m going to get the most out of it. The last two weekends, we’ve done that.”
Madrid, then, will deliver a completely new challenge – not just for Lawson, but all 22 drivers on the grid.
While the Spanish Grand Prix has traditionally been held in Barcelona, shifting the race more than 500km sees Formula One welcome another street circuit.
Similar to Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Madrid’s ‘Madring’ promises to combine high speeds with tight corners, and little room for error.
And with all drivers now in a race to get up to speed in the weekend’s three practice sessions before qualifying in the early hours of Sunday morning, Lawson knows what he needs to do.
“The very first lap is building everything up, it’s building everything up,” Lawson explained. “It’s just [about] learning the track.
“It’s almost like you’re in Monaco at the start of a weekend, and making sure you do all the laps. You want to have as much time on track as possible.
“When we go to tracks like Monza and other places, we’ve been there plenty of times, they’re simple tracks. You can spend a bit more time long running or [finding] set-up changes.
“Here, it’s about doing the laps and making sure that by qualifying, you’ve prepared as much as you can.”
The Spanish Grand Prix begins with the first of three practice sessions at 11.30pm on Friday (NZT).
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.