{"id":529717,"date":"2026-07-16T22:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/529717\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T22:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:33:09","slug":"formula-1-liam-lawson-overlooked-for-racing-bulls-upgrade-teammate-arvid-lindblad-favoured","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/529717\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula 1: Liam Lawson overlooked for Racing Bulls upgrade, teammate Arvid Lindblad favoured"},"content":{"rendered":"

After nine races, the Kiwi sits 10th in the championship<\/a> with 39 points \u2013 more than he scored in the entirety of 2025 \u2013 and leads Lindblad, 19 points back in 11th.<\/p>\n

Any suggestion of favouritism also comes after Lindblad appeared to ignore team orders in Austria<\/a>, where he was instructed not to attack Lawson coming out of the pits, but did so anyway. Lawson got his own back on that occasion, and finished ninth to Lindblad\u2019s 10th<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then, at Silverstone earlier this month, Lindblad was called into the pits before Lawson, despite being Racing Bulls\u2019 trailing car on track.<\/p>\n

Regardless, both Racing Bulls cars have proven their worth to start 2026. Red Bull\u2019s sister side have all the momentum in their hunt to finish fifth in the constructors championship, and trail Alpine by just one point, with two races to go before the summer break.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been very good, the car\u2019s been working very well,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cThe progression has been the most satisfying part.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery upgrade we\u2019re bringing or each area we\u2019re focusing on, we\u2019re managing to execute and find those gains we\u2019re searching for.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been really good. Obviously, it\u2019s motorsport \u2026sometimes stuff is going to happen that\u2019s out of your control.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut right now, everything that\u2019s in my control, I\u2019m trying to focus on. It\u2019s been bringing results \u2013 which has been great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belgium, though, could present arguably the biggest challenge of the year for all 22 drivers.<\/p>\n

Given the nature of the circuit, in tandem with Formula One\u2019s new regulations for 2026, cars will have minimal chances to recharge their batteries over the course of a lap, with Spa containing few braking zones long enough to give any real opportunity to do so. <\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam Lawson overtakes Isack Hadjar at the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix. Photo \/ Red Bull<\/p>\n

However, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone was a similar layout to Spa, and saw both Racing Bulls drivers finish in the points for the fifth race in succession.<\/p>\n

That feat gives Lawson hope of more of the same over the coming days, on a track where he finished eighth last year<\/a> after a crucial overtake of then-teammate Isack Hadjar.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s see,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cIt\u2019s a track that should be reasonably similar to Silverstone. It was a good track for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason why we shouldn\u2019t be strong. We have new parts on the car \u2013 more on Arvid\u2019s side \u2013 let\u2019s see what they do for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Practice for the Belgian Grand Prix begins at 11.30pm on Friday night (NZT). <\/p>\n

Alex Powell<\/a> is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After nine races, the Kiwi sits 10th in the championship with 39 points \u2013 more than he scored…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[53396,74,34384,169568,4995,137967,58032,2562,247209,261478,2082,29188,6637,22220,10813,47525,138264,20409,169569,111,139,69,217819,47527,3512,77366,2249,213,97592,4054,1961,2044,21419,14043,23366,14443],"class_list":["post-529717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-53396","tag-after","tag-alone","tag-arvid","tag-away","tag-belgian","tag-bulls","tag-claims","tag-favoured","tag-favouritism","tag-for","tag-formula","tag-gave","tag-going","tag-grand","tag-lawson","tag-lawsons","tag-liam","tag-lindblad","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-overlooked","tag-prix","tag-racing","tag-sole","tag-soon","tag-sports","tag-teammate","tag-teenager","tag-this","tag-time","tag-towards","tag-upgrade","tag-weekends","tag-wont"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}