Liam Lawson has experienced a lot in his short F1 career, with super-sub appearances, promotions, demotions and redemption all playing a part so far. Halfway into the 2025 season, which he started at Red Bull Racing and continued at Racing Bulls, the New Zealander talks to F1.com about the past, present and the future\u2026<\/p>\n
Lawson has just made his way back to a buzzing Goodwood Festival of Speed paddock after wrestling a rally car around the estate\u2019s own forest stage \u2013 bright red, giddy with adrenaline and keen to highlight how much fun it was behind the wheel.<\/p>\n
It adds to an already whirlwind 2025 for the 23-year-old, who dusts himself down, sits back in an armchair and presses an ice-cold can of Red Bull onto his forehead for some instant relief, then gets set to talk through all the twists and turns with F1.com.<\/p>\n
Promotion and demotion<\/p>\n
Lawson\u2019s year, of course, started at Red Bull, having been given the nod following his impressive showings at AlphaTauri\/Racing Bulls as a substitute for the injured Daniel Ricciardo in 2023 and as a full replacement across the final few rounds of 2024.<\/p>\n
It represented a massive opportunity to take the next step in his F1 adventure alongside reigning four-time World Champion Max Verstappen, with the prospect of turning points finishes into podiums, race victories and perhaps even more.<\/p>\n
But that self-described \u201clifelong dream\u201d<\/a> would be over after two challenging Grands Prix, with team chiefs sending him straight back to Racing Bulls via Q1 exits and no-scores at the season-opening back-to-back events in Australia and China.<\/p>\n A bitter blow at the time, Lawson has since worked hard to move on from that moment, settle into a rhythm at Red Bull\u2019s sister outfit and cement his place on the F1 grid \u2013 something he appears to be doing based on recent points-yielding efforts.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, it\u2019s a bit weird to have a second to reflect,\u201d says Lawson, as the memories flash through his eyes. \u201cIt\u2019s been a very busy couple of months with six weeks and five race weekends. To have a bit of time\u2026 it\u2019s important to think about how everything\u2019s been.<\/p>\n \u201cI think recently, performance-wise, it\u2019s been our strongest [phase]. The car\u2019s been fast, and I\u2019ve also been probably at a level that I wasn\u2019t quite at before that.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say there hasn\u2019t been enough points scored, for sure. Austria was great, but it\u2019s not enough. We need to be doing stuff like that as much as we can. I think the consistency is what\u2019s been tough.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously the start of the year, [we had] the big shake-up with the team switch, and then not really having the time to get to grips with things, racing every weekend, and trying to be at the level that I need to be at. It\u2019s been a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n It begs the question, has Lawson had time to process everything that\u2019s happened?<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, not really \u2013 not yet,\u201d he says. \u201cI think now it\u2019s not quite\u2026 I think the summer break is the time everybody mentally switches off, at least for a week or so.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all know we have a couple more races coming up before then. You\u2019re still in that mindset, you\u2019re still thinking about what just happened, how we\u2019re going to improve in the next couple of races, and how I\u2019m going to improve myself. You\u2019re just in it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have a bit of time to breathe, but mentally I\u2019m thinking about Belgium and Hungary that are coming up, and trying to go into that break with a good couple of races.\u201d<\/p>\n Setting the record straight<\/p>\n Doing so would mean bookending the first half of the season in completely different ways.<\/p>\n As touched on above, Lawson qualified 18th on his Red Bull debut at Melbourne\u2019s Albert Park before crashing out of the rain-hit race, then lined up at the very back of the grid at the Shanghai International Circuit and finished the Grand Prix just over a minute behind Verstappen.<\/p>\n But while Lawson admits those results \u201cweren\u2019t good enough\u201d, several factors were against him \u2013 namely a compromised testing period, going to tracks he had never raced at before (including a Sprint weekend), and having to deal with his generational talent of a team mate.<\/p>\n Former Red Bull junior Jaime Alguersuari was a sympathetic voice<\/a> as the paddock reacted to Lawson\u2019s demotion (and Yuki Tsunoda\u2019s promotion), commenting that \u201cyou can\u2019t be a hero and then the worst driver in one or two races\u201d.<\/p>\n Lawson, too, makes clear that despite the natural disappointment of not being afforded more time at Red Bull, he never lost the belief in his abilities across that two-race spell.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I would say one thing to be clear about is that between the first couple of races, to the team switch, then going to Japan, mentally for me nothing changed,\u201d he states, sitting back up in his chair while doing so.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been very heavily speculated that my confidence took a hit and stuff like this, which is completely false. From the start of the year, I felt the same as I always have.<\/p>\n \u201cI think in two races, on tracks I\u2019d never been to, it\u2019s not really enough for my confidence\u2026 maybe six months into a season, if I\u2019m still at that level, if the results are still like that, then I\u2019d be feeling something \u2013 maybe my confidence would be taking a hit.<\/p>\n \u201cI was well aware that those results weren\u2019t good enough, but I was just focused on improving, fixing and learning, basically. I was in the same mindset as I have been since I came into F1.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that was the biggest thing going into a team like that, in a car like that\u2026 it was going to take a bit of time to adjust and learn. With no proper testing, the issues in testing, the issues in Melbourne through practice\u2026 it wasn\u2019t smooth and clean. I needed time, and I wasn\u2019t given it.\u201d<\/p>\n He adds: \u201cI haven\u2019t really talked much about it, because I think for a big part of this year, I\u2019ve just ignored everything that happened, and I\u2019ve just focused on trying to drive the car \u2013 but I know there was a lot of stuff that went out that was speculation about how I was feeling.<\/p>\n \u201cMy confidence hasn\u2019t changed since the start of the year to now.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting back into the groove<\/p>\n