Liam Lawson Downplays His Red Bull Super Sub Stint as He Returns to Racing Bulls for the Azerbaijan GP

• Liam Lawson returns to Racing Bulls for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after three races filling in for the injured Isack Hadjar at Red Bull.
• Lawson scored 14 points in his three race stint, including P7 in Zandvoort and P6 in Madrid, but says it changed nothing about his outlook for 2027.
• The New Zealander admits the Red Bull car left him feeling more exposed at times than usual, even as he called the experience a positive one overall.

Lawson Trades One Red Bull Seat for the Other Again

Liam Lawson is back in his own car for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, handing the Red Bull seat back to Isack Hadjar after three races as the team’s emergency stand in. It is a return to normal business for the New Zealander, but not one he is treating as a turning point.

Lawson stepped in when Hadjar fractured his wrist, and used the loan spell to put a difficult chapter of his own Red Bull story behind him. In 2025 he was demoted from the senior team after only two races, given little chance to show what he could do. This time, over three rounds, he scored 14 points with results of P7 in Zandvoort, P14 in Monza and P6 in Madrid.

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Downplaying the Idea That He Proved a Point

Asked whether the stint had answered any lingering questions about his ability, Lawson pushed back on the idea entirely, insisting his own view of himself had never wavered.

“Maybe that’s obviously for you guys to decide,” he said. “For me, I didn’t come out of last year and question my ability to drive a race car. So it’s nice that I’ve been able to obviously have those races and maybe show the rest of the world. But it didn’t change anything for me, to be honest.”

Looking back at the three races overall, Lawson was satisfied with what he produced, while still able to point to moments he would like back. “Mostly,” he said, asked if he was happy with how it went. “You always look at stuff and go, what could I have done better. And there’s definitely things in there that could have been better. But considering a lot of the circumstances, honestly, I was pretty happy overall. I think two of the weekends were strong. It would have been nice to have three, but I think overall, it was good.”

Readjusting to a Very Different Car

With his focus now back on Racing Bulls, Lawson was asked whether the experience of racing Red Bull’s car has left him with extra confidence or knowledge to carry across. His answer was blunt.

“Honestly, no, none of that really changes,” he said. “For me, it’s now just readjusting to my car again. I’m excited to be back in it, honestly, and sort of carry on the fight that we’ve been in the first half of the year. In terms of the rest of it, though, it doesn’t really change too much.”

Lawson said the two cars have little in common beyond the power unit underneath them, which limited how much technical knowledge could transfer between the garages. “On the power unit side, potentially, but the rest of the car obviously is completely different,” he said. “I think it’s very hard to compare. The only comparable part is really the powertrain. The thing is, at the moment, track to track, it’s all completely different. So that’s more of a challenge. But there’s always other things you pick up.”

He pointed instead to smaller, operational lessons picked up from working inside a second garage for a few weeks. “Even operationally, you noticed things that the two teams do differently, some things good that we do, some things good that they do, and I think that’s been a good experience to learn from,” he said.

Feeling More Exposed in an Unfamiliar Car

Hadjar’s return to the cockpit in Baku arrived alongside confirmation that the French driver has kept his Red Bull seat for 2027, racing alongside Max Verstappen. Lawson said the early announcement was not a surprise, and that a full time Red Bull return had never really been on his mind while he was standing in.

“I wasn’t meant to drive this year at Red Bull,” he said. “Obviously we’ve very much been in the fight with VCARB, and I wasn’t really looking at that, to be honest. So it was great to do those races, it was challenging, honestly. But it didn’t really change anything that I was thinking outside of that for next year. I think it’s pretty standard, not surprising, I’d say.”

Lawson also admitted the unfamiliar car occasionally put him in a tougher spot than usual, even as he insisted the overall experience had been worthwhile. “I think that was maybe what made the races at Red Bull a little bit more of a challenge, or maybe had me a little bit more vulnerable, just because it’s a car that’s quite difficult to drive, and I’m not used to it, and at this time of year it’s obviously quite tough,” he said. “But they were good, and now I’m excited to be back.”

A Stronger Position Than Last Year, With a Decision Looming

Even without the Red Bull loan spell, Lawson’s season with Racing Bulls has done enough on its own to put him in a stronger position heading into contract talks for 2027. “For sure, I feel in a better position than I have done in in the past,” he said. “I think last year was definitely more difficult. It was more difficult to have sort of the consistency of results that this year we managed to honestly find, and that’s been really, really good. So yeah, I feel better than I did last year. So hopefully that helps going into next year.”

The complication is that Formula 2 star Nikola Tsolov carries plenty of momentum as the next driver in line for a graduation, and Red Bull has a decision to make in the coming weeks over who partners Hadjar’s teammate lineup below the senior team. “Probably soon,” Lawson said, on when he expects a call. “I would say the next few races. This time of year is obviously when all of these decisions get made. So yeah, it’s something that’s obviously being discussed in the background.”

For now, Lawson said he is trying to keep his attention on the racing rather than the speculation around him. “For me, it’s not something I’m really discussing too much, but I’m just trying to keep the string of points runs going,” he said.

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Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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