As speculation continues to swirl over his future, Liam Lawson concedes he’s yet to learn which team he’ll drive for in 2026.
Having been demoted by Red Bull just two races into 2025, following his sudden promotion at the end of last season, Lawson has begun to rebuild at sister team Racing Bulls, in the hope of returning to the organisation’s senior ranks.
Since 2019, Red Bull have struggled to find a partner for soon-to-be former world champion Max Verstappen, with Lawson joined by Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez and likely Yuki Tsunoda as those to be discarded.
However, while it’s understood that Lawson’s demotion was a means of keeping him out of the firing line until a potential return, the performance of Racing Bulls teammate Isack Hadjar has changed the equation.
In his first season racing in Formula One, the 20-year-old sits 10th in the championship, 17 points clear of Lawson after 15 races, and last weekend scored his first podium with third place at the Dutch Grand Prix.
At Zandvoort, a Red Bull senior adviser told Sky Germany that a decision over Red Bull’s driver lineups will be made towards the end of October, but gave no timeline as to when it will be announced.
That leaves at most, five races for any contenders to state their cases on track.
The Herald understands that Red Bull’s plan will see Lawson remain at Racing Bulls in a senior driver role, to help guide the team into Formula One’s new era, when some of the biggest regulation changes in the sport’s history come into effect.
Conversely, Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has also said that the decision will not be influenced by one single result.
That, in theory, leaves Lawson, Hadjar and Tsunoda pushing for that second Red Bull seat - unless the team looks outside its own ranks.
But speaking after arriving at Monza for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, Lawson said he is unaware of which way the team will lean.
“Not right now, it’s something that I think is being talked about in the background.
“But it’s something that we’ll understand more, later in the season. The team have got time to decide what they want to do.”
Lawson arrives at Monza after a result at Zandvoort that will ultimately go down as a “what if?”
Having qualified inside the top 10 for the third race in succession, Lawson’s chances of another points finish were scuppered when he collided with Williams’ Carlos Sainz, and sent both drivers to the back of the field.
The Kiwi was able to recover, and eventually crossed the line in 12th, however, that paled in comparison to Hadjar’s podium.
But while it would be easy to concentrate solely on his own result, Lawson takes pride in what his team and teammate were able to achieve.
“In general, it’s been very, very strong as a team,” he continued. “We’ve both been quite strong recently.
“It’s pretty exceptional to have a podium, for the team and for Isack last week. For the motivation for the team, it’s very uplifting. Everybody is very positive.
“We go to a lot of cool races towards the end of the year, for me, I’d love to achieve something similar, that’s what we’re all pushing towards.
“But the focus is on scoring points and trying to do it consistently.”
Helping Lawson’s push at Monza - where he finished 11th during his five-race stint in 2023 - is the fact that Racing Bulls’ car is competitive at the very least.
The VCARB02 has proven to be one of the more reliable cars on the grid, evidenced by Lawson and Hadjar being able to score points from outside Formula One’s top teams.
Meanwhile, following the Spaniard’s critical comments after Zandvoort, Lawson says he has not built any bridges with Sainz.
“What happened last week is not ideal. We had a very strong car, we had the opportunity to have two cars in the top five - which for us is massive, and it didn’t happen.
“It’s something I’m sure we’ll talk about this weekend, potentially. But he hasn’t come to see me.”
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.