{"id":36964,"date":"2025-08-22T04:48:56","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T08:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=36964"},"modified":"2025-08-22T04:48:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T08:48:56","slug":"lawson-self-critical-three-good-races-is-not-enough-to-say-in-f1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/22\/lawson-self-critical-three-good-races-is-not-enough-to-say-in-f1\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawson self-critical: “Three good races” is not enough to say in F1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liam Lawson<\/a> believes he must improve his performances after the summer break in order to guarantee his F1 future.<\/p>\n

The Kiwi was victim of this year’s first mid-season driver swap, losing his place at Red Bull after just two races.<\/p>\n

Having completed barely a dozen races before 2025, Lawson was always going to struggle in such a tricky RB21 – especially alongside Max Verstappen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Liam Lawson in Imola, Italy. (Photo by Lars Baron\/LAT Images) \/\/ Getty Images \/ Red Bull Content Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still, Lawson’s demotion has put him into a car that, ironically, is easier to manage than Red Bull’s.<\/p>\n

Lawson wants to capitalise on the VCARB 02’s competitiveness and secure his position at Red Bull’s second team.<\/p>\n

Why Lawson must end the season strongly<\/h2>\n

Even in a best-case scenario, Lawson is unlikely to be put back into the Red Bull seat.<\/p>\n

Isack Hadjar<\/a>, the Kiwi’s younger teammate, is almost certainly higher on the list of candidates to race alongside Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Unless Lawson performs at a substantially higher level than Hadjar, the young Frenchman’s market value should remain higher.<\/p>\n

Still, this is not to say there are not opportunities in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n

To a large extent, Lawson will be aiming to solidify himself at VCARB in a similar fashion to Pierre Gasly after his demotion in 2019.<\/p>\n

Getting back into the Red Bull<\/a> seat, as already mentioned is not a probable scenario.<\/p>\n

History teaches that the Austrian outfit do not give second chances to those who are promoted to the main team.<\/p>\n

Even drivers that have gone on to establish themselves in F1, like Alex Albon<\/a>, were not given time to re-assert themselves at Red Bull.<\/p>\n

Still, Lawson can be what Pierre Gasly – and to some extent Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> – was for Red Bull.<\/p>\n

If he outperforms Hadjar in the remaining months, he can set himself as a solid benchmark for the Milton Keynes team.<\/p>\n

By achieving this, regardless of whether Hadjar or Lawson race alongside him, the 23-year-old can stay on the grid for another season.<\/p>\n

Not only is staying in Formula 1 the obvious target for any driver at any time, but racing on the 2026 grid is of particular importance.<\/p>\n

Should Lawson earn another season with VCARB, he will be in a position to capitalise on what could be a very hectic driver market next year.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Yuki Tsunoda with Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson in Imola, Italy. (Photo by Ryan Pierse\/Getty Images) \/\/ Getty Images \/ Red Bull Content Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lawson self-critical<\/h4>\n

With the second half of the season yet to unfold, the 23-year-old is clear about his targets.<\/p>\n

As quoted by 1news<\/a>, the VCARB driver wants to consistently finish in the points over the coming rounds:<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s not enough,” said Lawson when reflecting on his points finish in Belgium.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We need to be doing it on nearly every weekend if that’s the target.<\/em><\/p>\n

“To have two or three of those races over the first half of the season is not enough.<\/em><\/p>\n

“So obviously, going forward to the second half of the year, we’re trying to replicate this more…<\/em><\/p>\n

“I think as a whole we need to be doing that more. To have two or three of those races over the first half of the season is not enough.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Main photo: Guido De Bortoli\/LAT Images (via Red Bull content pool)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liam Lawson believes he must improve his performances after the summer break in order to guarantee his F1 future. The Kiwi was victim of this year’s first mid-season driver swap, losing his place at Red Bull after just two races. Having completed barely a dozen races before 2025, Lawson was always going to struggle in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":36965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2452,1755,2245],"class_list":["post-36964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-liam-lawson","tag-racing-bulls"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36964"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37006,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36964\/revisions\/37006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}