Here's the thing: continuity won the day at Racing Bulls. The team has decided to retain Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad for the 2027 season, passing up the chance to promote surging Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov for now.
Lindblad earned his keep through a genuinely encouraging rookie campaign. He kicked off his Formula 1 career with points on debut in Australia, following that up with an impressive stretch of 10 points finishes in 11 Grands Prix weekends midway through the year. The team clearly liked what they saw, praising his feedback, calmness under pressure, and natural speed. Even though the 19-year-old hit a four-race points drought, he showed underlying growth, including a strong drive from 18th to 11th last time out in Brazil to secure 11th in the Drivers' Standings.
The second seat, however, was a proper dilemma. Lawson was enjoying the best season of his career by quite some distance, looking like a driver reborn after his early demotion from Red Bull in 2025. The 24-year-old scored points in 15 of the 20 Grands Prix this year—including two sub appearances at Red Bull—plus points in three Sprints. That stunning form puts him best of the rest and top of the midfield pack in P9 in the drivers' standings with 89 points, more than double the tally of the next best driver Pierre Gasly. Meanwhile, Tsolov was making serious waves in F2, leading the championship until the previous round before being usurped by Ferrari junior and incoming full-time Haas driver Rafa Camara. With six victories in F2 and a sharp FP1 outing in Mexico, Tsolov put real pressure on Lawson.
Ultimately, performance talked loudest. Lawson's 89-point haul has been crucial in driving the Faenza-based squad to P5 in the Teams' Championship, sitting 45 points clear of Alpine. Considering the team has never finished as high as fifth in their 20-year history, Lawson's contribution to that historic path made all the difference. He absorbed the pressure and delivered across the last triple header with a ninth in Austin and a brace of seventh places. With his race craft tightened up and mistakes cut out, Racing Bulls and Red Bull got exactly what they hoped for, while the pairing with Lindblad offered valuable stability.
As for Tsolov, the Bulgarian will simply have to wait. The energy drinks firm rates him extremely high, and his F1 debut is widely viewed as a matter of when, not if. While his exact role is unconfirmed, he is likely to be named reserve driver, pick up more FP1 outings to satisfy rookie requirements, and log miles in old-spec F1 machinery. With two drivers firing on all cylinders and a hungry talent waiting in the wings, Racing Bulls are running their junior conveyor belt precisely the way it was drawn up.
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