F1 2025 recap: Liam Lawson recovers after short-lived Red Bull F1 stint

When it comes to ruthless driver replacements, Red Bull really outdid itself when it lost Liam Lawson of your place in the RB21 nearby Max Verstappen after just two – admittedly dismal – weekends, crashing out of 18th on the grid in Melbourne and qualifying last for both the sprint and the Chinese Grand Prix.

Helmut Marko and Christian Horner believed that Lawson's two terrible weekends in Australia and China were so difficult that his season was in danger of spinning out of control, while the New Zealander argued that he simply needed a lot more time in the seat and that uncertainty about his own driving was never the real problem.

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“I’d like to think that if enough time had passed, I would have honestly given it some thought,” Lawson reflected. “There were two races… To be honest, I don’t even remember them. But a lot of things happened this year that made me a lot stronger.”

Lawson understandably felt aggrieved when he was swapped. Yuki Tsunodabut the 23-year-old had no time to dwell on such brutal demotion as he plunged headlong into the next race with his new team at Suzuka, marking the start of a 22-race spell with the promising rookie. Isak Hadjar. It proved to be a career-defining moment that secured his future as Red Bull considered which of the five drivers (including the Formula 2 ace) Arvid Lindblad) to distribute its four 2026 vehicles.

Liam Lawson's tenure at Red Bull Racing was short-lived.

Hajjar's success against Lawson, having spent the entire pre-season training and the first two weekends, gave the Frenchman an advantage at the start. And although he was the quicker of the two on one lap, with an ever-shrinking lead, Lawson managed to find a stable performance platform and gradually return to the necessary form to earn an extended stay on the track. Racing Bulls.

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“Liam has done a fantastic job – he has stabilized as the season has gone on and his race pace is consistently very high,” team CEO Peter Bayer said in Abu Dhabi.

Lawson has already competed in 35 Grands Prix but has yet to have the luxury of playing a full campaign for the same team. The 2026 season will give him that chance, and with it the opportunity to dispel any remaining doubts about his durability.

“I can look back on the past year and I think we definitely made a lot of progress throughout the year,” he reflected. “I can confidently say that I am now in a much more comfortable position than before, especially when I changed teams for the first time at the beginning of the season.

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“Obviously you're just playing catch-up, and yeah, as the season went on, I got a lot more comfortable. From a statistical standpoint, obviously a lot better. But from a personal standpoint, there are things that I'll always look back on and learn from.”