Retaining Liam Lawson is not enough if Red Bull keeps treating him as a failure
Liam Lawson did not fail Red Bull Racing in 2025; the team failed him, according to this Motorsport.com F1 analysis. Keeping the New Zealander for another year is presented as a logical step and a possible break with habits formed under Helmut Marko, but only if Red Bull stops treating young drivers, Lawson included, as goods with an expiry date.
He is said to have earned his right to remain in Formula 1 despite prolonged uncertainty about his future, a pressure Red Bull had trained him to keep off his results. His strongest run came as the paddock asked, ever more loudly, what more he had to do: five races in the points, four of them seventh, plus standout qualifying and aggressive racing. Ninth in the championship, he has more than double the points of Pierre Gasly in tenth, and his contribution is credited with putting Racing Bulls on course for its best team result.
The piece treats 2026 as his strongest Formula 1 season so far, and the first in which he was not merely a stand-in or rushed into an impossible job, as in early 2025. After only 11 starts he was put in the same garage as Max Verstappen; two poor Red Bull races surprised few except the organisation, yet they still colour the idea that he “had his chance and failed,” delaying confirmation of his future. Forget those months, the argument runs, and a different picture appears: a solid 2023 stand-in spell for Daniel Ricciardo, a strong end after replacing him a year later, then a fragmented path of two short Faenza stints, a scramble into Red Bull and a demotion. Even in a year he is finishing with the team he started testing with, he was called up for three races in place of Isack Hadjar.
The VCARB 03 is described as the first car he can truly call his own, after development work and proper testing. At 24, without the March 2025 Red Bull failure, he would be knocking on the senior team’s door rather than fighting to stay at Racing Bulls. Retaining him by denying Nikola Tsolov a seat is read as a sign of how highly the organisation now rates him.
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