Liam Lawson is heading back to the Racing Bulls team as he prepares for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, leaving behind a three-Grand Prix super-sub stint at Red Bull where he stepped in for the injured Isack Hadjar. Stepping back into a Red Bull seat was a significant moment for Lawson, who 18 months previously had competed for the World Championship-winning team for just two races before being demoted to the sister team Racing Bulls.
That first Red Bull stint was short, sharp and sore, but the 24-year-old was a different driver this time around. Having knuckled down, extracted his potential, and made the most of a compliant Racing Bulls car to score seven times in 2025, he earned a full season with the Italian squad alongside rookie Arvid Lindblad. Lawson has since stretched his legs, outperforming the highly-rated Lindblad in 2026 and showing the kind of consistency that made him an attractive proposition when Red Bull needed a substitute for Hadjar.
Ahead of his call-up for the Dutch Grand Prix, Lawson was on a run of six points finishes in seven races, a haul instrumental in putting Racing Bulls genuinely in the fight for P5 in the Teams' Championship against Alpine. Across his three Grands Prix weekends as a super-sub, he managed to score twice with seventh in the Netherlands and sixth in Madrid. With little more than a day or two of preparation, Lawson hit the ground running and closed the gap to Max Verstappen in both Qualifying and race trim.
Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies praised the performance in Madrid, noting how difficult it is to jump to a different team and car mid-season. "I think he's done a very good job," Mekies said. "He has continued to grow as a driver. He's very calm in the car, he is very focused. He's managed to keep things simple in the way he interacts with the team and in the way he tackles his own performance and the car performance. So he's focused on the essentials."
Heading into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Lawson sits 12 points and one place behind Hadjar in the drivers' standings in P8, and three places adrift of Verstappen. Despite impressing Red Bull with his handling and performance at the factory team, he is not believed to be in the running for a full-time return in the future, though he has improved his standing within the Red Bull family. His fight now looks to be with keeping his seat at Racing Bulls next season.
While he is favourite to get another year, Team Principal Alan Permane has yet to confirm his line-up, and Lawson is well aware of Red Bull junior and F2 championship leader Nikola Tsolov waiting in the wings. Lawson will now aim to hit the ground running on his return to Racing Bulls and pick up where he left off.
.webp&w=800)
%2FPiastri%2520Madrid.webp&w=800)
