Liam Lawson has encountered some troubles since returning to VCARB at the Japanese GP. This is understandable, in the context of his abrupt departure from Red Bull.
Still, Lawson cannot allow himself to be consistently outperformed by Isack Hadjar.
The Frenchman is younger and – despite Lawson’s chaotic career – still less experienced of the two Racing Bulls.
To secure his position at the team, particularly in the context of Red Bull’s interest in Arvid Lindblad, the Kiwi must step up his results.
VCARB team principal Laurent Mekies has spoken about how his engineers are working to ease Lawson’s transition.
Lawson must adjust quickly to keep his place in F1
Red Bull’s immense patience in Sergio Perez, amidst his relatively poor 2023 and 2024 campaigns, was somewhat unusual – given the team’s history.
Christian Horner and Helmut Marko showed a far more forgiving attitude with Perez than they typically extended to previous drivers.
Of course, the last few months have shown that Red Bull still have the capacity to be ruthless.
Lawson was given just two weekends alongside Max Verstappen before being demoted in favour of Yuki Tsunoda – an unprecedented chain of events.
Understandably, losing a Red Bull seat so early in the season is not easy to overcome.
Still, the 23-year-old has no time to fell sorry for himself – else he risks losing his F1 seat for 2026.
In a bid to help Lawson’s form, the Racing Bulls are working closely to accelerate his adaptation to the VCARB 02.
Laurent Mekies has shed some light on this process:
“The first thing is, obviously, to put him back into being comfortable in the car,” he told PlanetF1.
“That’s what we are focusing on.
“He had lost that confidence in these two very difficult races, and what we are focusing on is that he is comfortable in the car and that he feels comfortable enough to push.
“If we tick these two boxes, we know the talent has not disappeared. The speed is going to come back.
“So it’s only been [three] races with us. We’ve seen already a clear step forward between Japan and Bahrain.
“You may not have seen it on the timesheet but, for us, from a data perspective, what he does with the car and the way he’s pushing the car, it’s clearly a step forward.
“So we expect him to keep ramping up.”
Poor timing for Lawson
Perhaps more than any sport, success and failure in Formula 1 is often dictated by timing.
Initially, Lawson benefited from a series of events to earn the Red Bull seat and begin the year alongside Verstappen.
Of course, things can change quickly in F1 – the Kiwi driver knows this better than most.
At the very start of the year, Tsunoda and Hadjar were consistently fighting for points with VCARB.
Whilst strategy often undermined the Faenza team’s success, the car was undoubtedly fast.
Since then, however, Williams have established themselves as the ‘best of the rest’ in the midfield
With Aston Martin set to bring some big updates, VCARB could find themselves falling down the pecking order.
Should this be the case, it could become increasingly difficult for Lawson to rebuild his reputation at the second team.
Main photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images | Red Bull content pool
