Liam Lawson Returns to Formula 1 at Monza for Red Bull

Liam Lawson will get another shot in Formula 1’s spotlight at Monza, with Red Bull confirming the New Zealander will again stand in for the injured Isack Hadjar at the Italian Grand Prix.

Lawson impressed on his return to the grid at Zandvoort, hustling the RB22 to seventh place and banking valuable points for the Milton Keynes team. Dropped into the car late and asked to perform immediately, he delivered. Now he returns to one of F1’s most unforgiving stages: the Temple of Speed.

Hadjar, recovering from a wrist injury sustained over the summer break, will miss a second consecutive round as Red Bull opt for caution over haste. The team stressed that his rehabilitation remains on track but underlined they will not gamble with his long-term fitness.

“Liam will drive alongside Max [Verstappen] at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, while Isack continues to make encouraging progress following the wrist injury sustained during the summer break. The team is closely monitoring his rehabilitation and will take no unnecessary risks with his return to competition and wishes him a speedy recovery,” read a Red Bull statement.

Lawson, who described Zandvoort as “challenging” as he scrambled to get on top of the RB22 in a compressed timeframe, still walked away encouraged by his pace and composure.

“It's been a good weekend,” he said after the Dutch Grand Prix. “It was good to extract everything out of Quali. It's been tough to try and get my head around this car in a short space of time, but I've enjoyed it.”

Now comes Monza: low downforce, high stakes, and nowhere to hide. Another clean, points-scoring drive here would only tighten his grip on a future full-time seat.

While Lawson steps up again at Red Bull, the driver carousel continues at Racing Bulls. Yuki Tsunoda will keep the seat Lawson vacated, the Japanese driver confirmed for a second successive weekend with the Faenza-based squad.

“Yuki will drive for the team at the Italian GP this weekend,” Racing Bulls announced on social media, a simple line that carries real weight for a driver fighting to reassert his value after losing his place on the grid at the end of 2025.

Tsunoda’s comeback at Zandvoort fell agonisingly short of the points in 11th, but the 26-year-old sounded revitalised by the chance to race again.

“I definitely enjoyed it overall, and yeah, I think I gave it 100%, as much as I can,” he said. “I think I did pretty okay.”

Monza offers him another chance to turn “pretty okay” into something more concrete.

There will be one more twist to Red Bull’s Italian weekend. Ayumu Iwasa is set to climb into Verstappen’s car for Free Practice 1 on Friday, handing the Japanese driver valuable mileage in a front-running machine. It’s only one session, but at a team where every opportunity is a test, it will be watched closely.

So Red Bull arrive in Italy with Verstappen chasing another Monza statement, Lawson defending his claim to a future seat, Tsunoda trying to rebuild his, and Iwasa stepping into the shop window for an hour on Friday.

For a weekend on the fastest track of them all, there is no shortage of careers moving at full speed.