Lawson on his Red Bull stint, bouncing back with Racing Bulls and what’s next

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…

Lawson has just made his way back to a buzzing Goodwood Festival of Speed paddock after wrestling a rally car around the estate’s own forest stage – bright red, giddy with adrenaline and keen to highlight how much fun it was behind the wheel.

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.

Promotion and demotion

Lawson’s 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.

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.

But that self-described “lifelong dream” 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.

A bitter blow at the time, Lawson has since worked hard to move on from that moment, settle into a rhythm at Red Bull’s sister outfit and cement his place on the F1 grid – something he appears to be doing based on recent points-yielding efforts.

“I mean, it’s a bit weird to have a second to reflect,” says Lawson, as the memories flash through his eyes. “It’s been a very busy couple of months with six weeks and five race weekends. To have a bit of time… it’s important to think about how everything’s been.

“I think recently, performance-wise, it’s been our strongest [phase]. The car’s been fast, and I’ve also been probably at a level that I wasn’t quite at before that.

“I would say there hasn’t been enough points scored, for sure. Austria was great, but it’s not enough. We need to be doing stuff like that as much as we can. I think the consistency is what’s been tough.

“Obviously 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’s been a lot.”

It begs the question, has Lawson had time to process everything that’s happened?

“Honestly, not really – not yet,” he says. “I think now it’s not quite… I think the summer break is the time everybody mentally switches off, at least for a week or so.

“We all know we have a couple more races coming up before then. You’re still in that mindset, you’re still thinking about what just happened, how we’re going to improve in the next couple of races, and how I’m going to improve myself. You’re just in it.

“It’s nice to have a bit of time to breathe, but mentally I’m thinking about Belgium and Hungary that are coming up, and trying to go into that break with a good couple of races.”

Setting the record straight

Doing so would mean bookending the first half of the season in completely different ways.

As touched on above, Lawson qualified 18th on his Red Bull debut at Melbourne’s 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.

But while Lawson admits those results “weren’t good enough”, several factors were against him – 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.

Former Red Bull junior Jaime Alguersuari was a sympathetic voice as the paddock reacted to Lawson’s demotion (and Yuki Tsunoda’s promotion), commenting that “you can’t be a hero and then the worst driver in one or two races”.

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.

“I 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,” he states, sitting back up in his chair while doing so.

“It’s 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.

“I think in two races, on tracks I’d never been to, it’s not really enough for my confidence… maybe six months into a season, if I’m still at that level, if the results are still like that, then I’d be feeling something – maybe my confidence would be taking a hit.

“I was well aware that those results weren’t 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.

“I think that was the biggest thing going into a team like that, in a car like that… 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… it wasn’t smooth and clean. I needed time, and I wasn’t given it.”

He adds: “I haven’t really talked much about it, because I think for a big part of this year, I’ve just ignored everything that happened, and I’ve just focused on trying to drive the car – but I know there was a lot of stuff that went out that was speculation about how I was feeling.

“My confidence hasn’t changed since the start of the year to now.”

Getting back into the groove

After Lawson’s first day back with Racing Bulls at Suzuka, I asked him how the RB21 and VCARB 02 compared, given all the talk about taming Red Bull’s cars in recent seasons, and the difficulties Verstappen’s various team mates have faced.

“It does feel different, definitely,” he admitted on that Friday. “I think it’s maybe not what everyone expects, but it is definitely a different feeling to drive. I think the window that the [Racing Bulls] guys have at the moment is very, very good.”

Lawson’s performances over the next few races were solid rather than spectacular on paper, predominantly posting Q2 appearances and midfield finishes – while rookie team mate Isack Hadjar pushed for Q3 and points – over the five race weekends from Japan to Emilia-Romagna.

But there would soon be flashes of the Lawson who caught the eye in 2023 and 2024, who proved himself alongside more experienced team mate Tsunoda, and who earned that call-up to Red Bull’s main outfit.

Monaco brought the first rewards with a Q3 appearance and top-10 finish, as well as Lawson playing the team game in a particularly strategic race – featuring two mandated pit stops – to help Hadjar bag even more points for Racing Bulls.

Then, after encouraging practice pace in Spain and Canada faded, the Austrian Grand Prix weekend marked one of Lawson’s strongest in F1 to date – a stellar P6 on the grid being turned into P6 on race day (behind only the McLarens, Ferraris and George Russell’s Mercedes).

While some on the outside had expressed their doubts, Lawson knew it was only a matter of time before he delivered such a showing.

“No breakthroughs, just gradual build-up,” he says of the effort behind that top-six result. “Even from the first triple-header, the speed was good. It wasn’t great, but it was quite good there. Since then, it’s been in a pretty good place.

“We’ve gone to a lot of tracks… Monaco we were very strong in practice; Barcelona strong in practice; Canada strong in practice. Then you go to Qualifying and little things make a difference. It’s not good enough, because the results haven’t been coming consistently enough, but the speed itself has been quite good.

“Why Austria was a great weekend was obviously just to have that breakthrough of points, and I guess probably show a little bit of what’s been building for a while, but also what needs to be coming more frequently.”

A hugely competitive era

Achieving that consistency is arguably as difficult as it has ever been in F1.

With an incredibly small field spread in the closing stages of the sport’s current ruleset, it means just a few hundredths of a second can be the difference between a painful Q1 exit and the elation of reaching Q3.

The situation is also reflected in the Teams’ Championship standings, as 40 points separate Williams in fifth position and Alpine at the foot of the order – Racing Bulls holding seventh with 36 points to their name.

“F1 in general is very, very close right now, so it puts pressure on us, and the team, to first of all bring the best package we have to a race,” Lawson continues.

“If you arrive at a track and your car’s way out of the window, and you’re trying to chase it, everybody else is improving. It’s so close that we’re just trying to find half a tenth here and half a tenth there.

“All the way up until the final two corners of the lap you’re in a position where you’re going to go through to Q2, and one little thing, a tiny error, can just knock you out. You lose one or two-tenths and then you’re on the receiving end.

“The car’s consistently been quite strong recently. I think we’re in a good place, and we’re just trying to keep the trajectory going upwards.”

Amid all of this, it’s worth noting that Lawson only has 23 starts to his name – below a current calendar’s worth of races and not much more than the 2025 group of rookies.

“That’s crazy,” Lawson responds with a smile when the number is pointed out, before pondering what would represent a respectable return from the 12 rounds still to come this season.

“I think for us, it’s just having more frequent, good races – not one-off races,” he comments. “It’s very, very hard, especially in the midfield, where you’re trying to have that edge over everybody else around you.

“You’re quite often fighting for [a few] points at the back end of the top 10, and occasionally when things are really good you get an Austria weekend, but it’s very hard to achieve that all the time.

“I would say a consistent run of points is what we’re looking for, to have [fewer] of these weekends where it’s little issues, being knocked out in Q1 and things like that.”

Focused on the here and now

Given the rollercoaster ride so far, and the tight scrap Racing Bulls find themselves in, does it mean Lawson’s mindset is now very much focused on each race as it comes, rather than thinking about where his F1 career might be in another year’s time?

“It is at the moment, yeah,” he nods. “I think the thing about F1 in general is you come in and there are so many races and so many weekends. You’re used to probably having a bit more time.

“Here, you’re forced to basically come out of a race weekend, especially on a triple-header, have a day to think about what just happened, and then you’re straight away thinking about the next race. You almost get lost in this world.

“I don’t know if it’s healthy or not healthy, but you just think about F1, the performance and the result. I sit here now and we’re nearly mid-July. The year has just gone. The fact we’ve done 12 races is insane, and they’ve just gone by like that.

“It does make a difference when you go into those little breaks, summer break and end of season, where you switch off. I find those moments quite weird. After too much time I get quite concerned that I’m not thinking about it… and you end up thinking about it!”

When the chequered flag drops at next month’s Hungarian Grand Prix and drivers head into the summer break, there will be more than usual for Lawson to look back on and evaluate, but the signs are now pointing toward him finishing 2025 in a much better place than he started it.