{"id":596528,"date":"2026-09-10T23:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T23:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/596528\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T23:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T23:14:11","slug":"formula-1-liam-lawson-proves-himself-right-critics-wrong-with-red-bull-injury-replacement-stint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/596528\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula 1: Liam Lawson proves himself right, critics wrong with Red Bull injury replacement stint"},"content":{"rendered":"

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. <\/p>\n

This weekend, with Hadjar still unavailable<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

Regardless of what happens, Madrid will see Lawson\u2019s Red Bull race tally climb to three, going past the two he notched in 2025.<\/p>\n

However, Red Bull are a very different organisation<\/a> to the one that Lawson left last year. For a start, the main players culpable in his rapid promotion and demotion \u2013 Christian Horner and Dr Helmut Marko \u2013 are no longer with the team.<\/p>\n

But with his future still to be confirmed beyond this season, the Kiwi maintains his Red Bull woes are well and truly behind him. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not something I really think too much about,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cIt was a very long time ago, it was very early in my Formula One career. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam Lawson at the Dutch Grand Prix. Photo \/ Red Bull<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day, in whatever car I\u2019m driving, I\u2019m going to get the most out of it. The last two weekends, we\u2019ve done that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madrid, then, will deliver a completely new challenge \u2013 not just for Lawson, but all 22 drivers on the grid.<\/p>\n

While the Spanish Grand Prix has traditionally been held in Barcelona, shifting the race more than 500km sees Formula One welcome another street circuit.<\/p>\n

Similar to Saudi Arabia\u2019s Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Madrid\u2019s \u2018Madring\u2019 promises to combine high speeds with tight corners, and little room for error.<\/p>\n

And with all drivers now in a race to get up to speed in the weekend\u2019s three practice sessions before qualifying in the early hours of Sunday morning, Lawson knows what he needs to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very first lap is building everything up, it\u2019s building everything up,\u201d Lawson explained. \u201cIt\u2019s just [about] learning the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like you\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we go to tracks like Monza and other places, we\u2019ve been there plenty of times, they\u2019re simple tracks. You can spend a bit more time long running or [finding] set-up changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, it\u2019s about doing the laps and making sure that by qualifying, you\u2019ve prepared as much as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spanish Grand Prix begins with the first of three practice sessions at 11.30pm on Friday (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":"For Lawson, those six points earned speak volumes. The 24-year-old has always maintained he would have settled at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[53396,1443,8212,1558,22947,13504,29188,25901,8241,15258,302,47525,138264,20409,111,139,69,63622,122283,15406,2853,1527,9979,213,162551,102,25152],"class_list":["post-596528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-53396","tag-about","tag-anyone","tag-been","tag-bull","tag-critics","tag-formula","tag-hasnt","tag-himself","tag-injury","tag-its","tag-lawson","tag-lawsons","tag-liam","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-proves","tag-proving","tag-red","tag-replacement","tag-return","tag-right","tag-sports","tag-stint","tag-with","tag-wrong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596528","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=596528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}