Liam Lawson will go into the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend chasing his first championship points in six weeks, after a non-finish in Miami left the Kiwi tenth in the drivers’ standings with 10 points across the opening four rounds of the 2026 Formula One season.
The Racing Bulls driver has not visited the points since his ninth at Suzuka in late March, when he banked two points to add to the eight he had picked up two weeks earlier in Shanghai. A retirement in Miami at the start of May then ended a run of strong race-pace performances and left him needing a turnaround at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.
It comes as Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane has set out a clear message for the 24 year old to take the next step in his career. Speaking to RacingNews365 earlier this month, Permane praised Lawson’s natural pace but said inconsistency remained the area to attack.
“I see immense talent there. Some of his performances last year were outstanding,” Permane said. “What he needs to do, and what he is doing so far, is eliminate mistakes. We can’t be qualifying third on the grid one weekend and then out in Q1 the following weekend, that sort of thing.”
Permane is not asking for more outright speed, which he believes Lawson already has.
“If he just eliminates the bad level and lifts everything up to what we know he’s capable of, that will already be a fantastic step,” he said. “It’s working on the consistency, which he’s doing.”
Lawson’s start to 2026 has been a notable contrast to his torrid first half of last year, when he was demoted from Red Bull to Racing Bulls after just two races. In Melbourne he came home thirteenth from eighth on the grid in a points-eligible position lost late, before recovering for seventh in China and ninth in Japan. The Miami DNF is the kind of weekend any driver wants to be done with as quickly as possible.
Montreal hands him the chance to do exactly that. The Canadian Grand Prix is the fifth round of the championship and the first to be held in May since the 1980s, after Formula One dropped the long-standing mid-June slot to better balance the calendar. Race day on Sunday has also been pushed back to 4pm local Montreal time, so it does not clash with the Indianapolis 500 in the United States.
It is also a sprint weekend, the second in a row after Miami. Friday opens with a single practice session at 12.30pm local Montreal time and is followed by sprint qualifying. Saturday delivers the 100-kilometre sprint race and then qualifying for the grand prix. Sunday is the 70-lap main event around the 4.361 kilometre Île Notre-Dame circuit. New Zealand viewers will need to be up early. First practice is 4.30am Saturday NZ time, the sprint is 4am Sunday and the race itself rolls out of the lights at 8am Monday morning.
The track itself suits a driver who can hustle. Montreal is fast, has only a small number of high-commitment braking zones, frequently produces safety cars and provides a clear DRS overtake into the hairpin. Two competitive sessions before the grid is locked in also means Lawson has more bites at the apple to find rhythm and minimise the very inconsistency Permane has been pressing him on.
Racing Bulls have historically been competitive at the venue and the team will need every point it can find as it tries to claw past Haas, Aston Martin and Williams in a tight midfield. Every spot in the constructors’ championship is worth millions in prize money.
Lawson’s rookie teammate Arvid Lindblad, the sole new face on the 2026 grid, will share the same goal. The 18 year old Briton, signed from Formula Two to replace the promoted Isack Hadjar, opened his account with eighth on debut in Australia and now sits 12th in the standings with four points. Team principal Permane has been content to give him space to find his feet rather than judge him race by race.
For Lawson though Canada is more pointed. His 2026 trajectory is the one Red Bull is studying as it decides what its line-up looks like in 2027 and beyond. A clean sprint, a solid qualifying and a points finish on Sunday would do plenty to keep the conversation about the Kiwi driving for a senior seat alive. The opposite would only sharpen the questions Permane has already half-raised.
Behind the scenes there is also the matter of the 2026 regulations themselves. This is the first season of the new power-unit and chassis rules, with smaller cars, 50 per cent electrical power and sustainable fuels, and the pecking order is still settling. Five races in, the door is genuinely open for a midfield team to grab a result if a front-runner stumbles. Lawson has the race pace. Now he needs the weekend without the asterisk.
What do you make of Lawson’s start to the year? Can he convert his race pace into a Canadian Grand Prix points haul on Sunday? Tell us in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
Leave a Reply