Eighteen months ago Liam Lawson was the driver nobody in Formula 1 seemed sure what to do with. Halfway through the 2026 season the Hastings racer has quietly answered the question himself, banking more championship points by the summer break than he managed in the whole of last year and turning Racing Bulls into the most consistent car in the midfield.
Lawson finished sixth at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, climbing from tenth on the grid in a race that lifted his season tally to 39 points. That is already one more than the 38 he scored across the entire 2025 campaign, and it came with a stack of races still to run. It was his seventh points finish of the year and his fifth in a row, the sort of run that rebuilds a reputation one weekend at a time.
The number that matters most sits in the drivers’ standings. Lawson is now within three points of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who holds ninth, and he is comfortably ahead of his own rookie team-mate. That is a long way from where the New Zealander stood at the start of 2025, when a two-race stint at the senior Red Bull team ended almost before it began.
Lawson was promoted alongside Max Verstappen for the opening rounds of last season, struggled to match the four-time world champion on a single qualifying lap, crashed at the Australian season opener and was moved back to the junior team after just two grands prix. It was one of the harshest calls the sport has seen in years, and plenty inside the paddock thought it said more about Red Bull’s impatience than about Lawson’s ability.
Sky Sports analyst and former racer Naomi Schiff was among those who felt the driver had been badly served. Speaking about his 2026 form, she said Lawson is now “in a car that’s clearly competing well, in an environment that clearly is nurturing them a little bit better” than the senior team had managed. She added, “It was really tough what they did to Liam Lawson; they promoted him into that seat quite quickly, and they removed him from that seat even quicker.”
Back at Racing Bulls, the calmer surroundings have let him settle. The team has scored points at nearly every round, reached the third part of qualifying again and again, and collected a fourth straight double-points finish at Silverstone. Team principals talk about being “best of the rest”, and this year the phrase actually fits, with Racing Bulls sitting fifth in the constructors’ championship behind the four established front-runners.
Lawson has been careful not to get carried away, but even he admitted the British round felt like a step forward. Speaking after the race, he said, “It definitely helps when you have a fast race car. Honestly, this weekend we were just really strong.” He pointed out how far the team had come in a short space of time. “A few races ago we were miles away. So we have definitely really improved things.”
The most telling line was about where the car now belongs on the grid. Lawson described Racing Bulls as “now consistently in front of the midfield, which is really, really good” and said he was very happy with how the team was closing on the top four. With the season pausing for its mid-year break, he added that “it would be nice to keep the momentum going” through the second half.
His team-mate is part of the story too. Arvid Lindblad, the 18-year-old British rookie, finished seventh at his home race, right behind Lawson, and now has 20 points and eleventh place in the standings. The pair have given Racing Bulls one of the strongest driver line-ups in the middle of the field, and the internal contest has clearly sharpened Lawson rather than unsettled him. Leading a highly rated youngster over a full half-season is exactly the kind of result that gets noticed further up the pit lane.
Which brings the conversation to 2027. Lawson’s current deal does not stretch far into the future, and the driver market tends to open up around this point in the calendar. For now he is playing it down. Asked about his plans beyond this season, he said it was “honestly not even something I’ve really thought about”, while acknowledging the summer break would be a time when “things are heavily considered”.
He cannot afford to drift. Red Bull keeps a deep bench of junior drivers, and the standout this year is Bulgarian teenager Nikola Tsolov, who has won six of the first fourteen Formula 2 races and leads that championship. A driver in that kind of form eventually needs a Formula 1 seat, and Racing Bulls has always been the landing spot for the group’s brightest prospects. The best insurance Lawson has is the one he is already buying, which is to keep scoring points and keep beating the man in the other car.
For New Zealand fans, the shift in mood is worth savouring. This time last year the story was about a young driver being chewed up by the sport’s most demanding team. Now it is about a 24-year-old who took the demotion, kept his head down and rebuilt himself into a reliable points scorer with a real argument for staying on the grid. The raw speed was never really in doubt. What Lawson has added in 2026 is the consistency that turns a promising talent into a driver teams want to keep.
The season resumes after the break, and with it the quiet negotiations over who sits where in 2027. On current form, Lawson has done as much as any driver in the midfield to make his own case.
What do you make of Liam Lawson’s turnaround this season, and where do you think he should be racing in 2027? Share your thoughts 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 🙂
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