{"id":628735,"date":"2026-10-12T23:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T23:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/628735\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T23:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T23:00:10","slug":"formula-one-is-liam-lawson-to-thank-for-max-verstappens-return-to-form-one-expert-thinks-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/628735\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula One: Is Liam Lawson to thank for Max Verstappen\u2019s return to form? One expert thinks so"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anderson said tinkling with a new power unit has been a major part of Verstappen\u2019s improvement but also suggested Lawson may have offered more insight to the team during his Red Bull stint. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnother theory I have is that the arrival of Liam Lawson at the team for three races when he replaced Isack Hadjar has aided them. Lawson is showing himself to be a strong driver and he has knowledge of the Racing Bulls car, which is generally more benign and driver-friendly. Those words do not describe the characteristics of the RB22 earlier this year,\u201d Anderson wrote.<\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam Lawson leads Arvid Lindblad and Oscar Piastri at Formula One’s Spanish Grand Prix. Photo \/ Red Bull<\/p>\n

\u201cLawson\u2019s presence may well have helped hone the set-up and move the car into a better operating window for Verstappen to get more from it. Verstappen has shown he is able to win with a problematic machine and perhaps just dialling out some of the bigger problems has given him the chance to win again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe improvement on the Red Bull will be a circle of events and not just one thing, though. As I have said before with these new cars, finding performance is about piecing together the jigsaw. Maybe Lawson coming in allowed them to find the missing pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

A decision on Lawson\u2019s future at Racing Bulls, meanwhile, is expected to be announced in the coming weeks<\/a>, with the team considering Formula Two driver Nikola Tsolov.<\/p>\n

Speaking to media after the weekend\u2019s only practice session in Singapore, team boss Alan Permane indicated a decision would be made, if not announced, \u201cin the coming weeks\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not in a rush,\u201d he said. \u201cI think everyone knows we\u2019ve got two fantastic drivers, we\u2019ve got a fantastic driver in F2 at the moment,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re all there and ready to go at the moment, but three doesn\u2019t fit into two, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to take a little bit more time and make sure we get the right pairing for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anderson said tinkling with a new power unit has been a major part of Verstappen\u2019s improvement but also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59740,4057,22947,124,20308,1601,2082,16555,29188,308483,185,47525,138264,20409,33813,111,139,69,5270,47527,3512,16513,1527,17509,213,162551,24994,2215,52506,36672,265941,61,164681,5977,102],"class_list":["post-628735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-backtoback","tag-behind","tag-bull","tag-could","tag-dutchman","tag-expert","tag-for","tag-form","tag-formula","tag-grands","tag-is","tag-lawson","tag-lawsons","tag-liam","tag-max","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-one","tag-prix","tag-racing","tag-reason","tag-return","tag-so","tag-sports","tag-stint","tag-sudden","tag-suggested","tag-thank","tag-thinks","tag-threeweek","tag-to","tag-verstappens","tag-which","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628735","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=628735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}