What does the future hold for Lawson after his super-sub stint with Red Bull?

Liam Lawson returns to the Racing Bulls team where he rebuilt his Formula 1 reputation following a three-Grand Prix stint as a super-sub for the injured Isack Hadjar at Red Bull – so what does the future hold for the New Zealander?

Stepping back into a Red Bull seat was a significant moment for Lawson, who 18 months previously had competed for the World Championship-winning team for just two races before being demoted to the sister team Racing Bulls.

That first Red Bull stint was short, sharp and sore, but Lawson was a different driver when he suited up in the familiar blue, red and yellow overalls for a second time.

The 24-year-old had got his head down, focused on extracting his potential and made the most of a very compliant Racing Bulls car to score seven times in 2025 and earn a full season with the Italian squad alongside rookie Arvid Lindblad.

Lawson has since stretched his legs, outperforming the highly-rated Lindblad in 2026 and showing the kind of consistency that made him a very attractive proposition when Red Bull needed a substitute for Hadjar.

Ahead of his call-up for the Dutch Grand Prix – incidentally the race where he made his F1 debut as a substitute for the injured Daniel Ricciardo back in 2023 – Lawson was on a run of six points finishes in seven, with that haul instrumental in putting Racing Bulls genuinely in the fight for P5 in the Teams' Championship.

Should they come out on top in their battle with Alpine, that would be the highest position the Faenza-based team, founded in 2006, have ever finished.

For Lawson to continue that form at Red Bull, though, was not certain even if Hadjar had done an impressive job in his first campaign at the factory team – scoring eight times including a second career podium in Monaco.

So how has he done at Red Bull? Well, across three Grands Prix weekends, he managed to score twice with seventh in the Netherlands and sixth in Madrid.

Though he didn't hit the highs of Hadjar's early season form (the Frenchman was typically finishing one or two places behind Verstappen on average) when comparing Lawson's form to his first short stint at Red Bull, it was favourable.

With little more than a day or two of preparation, Lawson hit the ground running and closed the gap to Max Verstappen in both Qualifying and race trim.

While his average grid position/finishing result isn't as strong as Hadjar's (he was scoring around two points less on average than Hadjar), we only have three races to compare for Lawson compared to Hadjar's 11 – and it's never easy to jump into a new car with a new team mid-season.

And with uncertainty over Hadjar's return date, Lawson was having to prepare to race both the Red Bull and Racing Bull for each weekend, which is no mean feat.

"I think he's done a very good job," said Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies of Lawson's performances when speaking in Madrid. "We all know how difficult it is to jump to a different team, to a different car, and I think that he has done that to the best of what could have been our expectations.

"He did a very good job, again very different pictures compared to the first two races of 2025 when he was in the team, so we are thankful and happy with that."

He added: "He has continued to grow as a driver. He's very calm in the car, he is very focused. He's managed to keep things simple in the way he interacts with the team and in the way he tackles his own performance and the car performance. So he's focused on the essentials.

"He tries to get the basic rights and it's working for him, of course with more time in the car, you can then get to another degree of finesse, maybe. But yeah, I think that approach is very, very strong."

Heading into this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Lawson is 12 points and one place behind Hadjar (who is in P8) in the drivers' standings – and three places adrift of Verstappen. That is a very strong showing.

Though he impressed Red Bull with the way he handled himself and performed at the factory team, he is not believed to be in the running for a full-time return in the future – however, he has only served to improve his standing within the Red Bull family.

His performance will also have done wonders for his confidence – and he'll need all that belief as his fight looks to be with keeping his seat at Racing Bulls next season.

While he is favourite to get another year, Team Principal Alan Permane has yet to confirm his line-up and Lawson will be well aware of Red Bull junior and F2 championship leader Nikola Tsolov waiting in the wings.

Lawson, then, will be aiming to hit the ground running on his return to Racing Bulls – who have shown they've got a car capable of scoring at any type of circuit this year – and picking up where he left off.

Based on the way he handled his time at Red Bull and his run of form up until that point, he's in a very good spot to do just that.