Liam Lawson Returns to Racing Bulls for Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Liam Lawson is back where he belongs – and this time, the picture is a lot clearer.

After three eye‑catching substitute drives for Red Bull, the Kiwi returns to his regular seat at Racing Bulls for this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, no longer juggling split loyalties or scrambling between two very different cars. For a driver still fighting to prove he deserves a permanent place on the grid, that stability matters.

A stand‑in who outshone the starters

Lawson’s cameo for Red Bull was supposed to be a stopgap while Isack Hadjar recovered. It became something far more pointed.

Thrown into the Dutch Grand Prix with limited preparation and a new car beneath him, Lawson qualified just 0.115s behind Max Verstappen – a stunning margin given the circumstances. When Verstappen crashed on the opening lap, it was Lawson who carried the senior team’s hopes. He kept his head, stayed out of trouble and dragged the car to seventh, the only one of Red Bull’s four entries to score points at Zandvoort.

The message was hard to miss. Demoted just two races into 2025, Lawson was suddenly the one propping up the programme.

His form didn’t dip in the races that followed. At Monza, he was on course for another top‑10 finish before front wing damage ruined his chances and pushed him out of the points. Any notion that Zandvoort had been a one‑off evaporated in Madrid, where he finished sixth at the Spanish Grand Prix, banking another solid haul.

Three races. Fourteen championship points. No drama, no fuss – just production.

Back to Racing Bulls, with a point to prove

Now comes the reset. Lawson returns to Racing Bulls with a full race week to focus solely on his own car and his own team, instead of splitting time and attention between two operations while Hadjar healed.

It changes everything about his preparation. No last‑minute switches, no compromises on set‑up work, no divided engineering briefings. For a young driver trying to build rhythm in a tightly packed season, that kind of continuity can be the difference between hanging on and pushing forward.

Baku is also no ordinary stop on his calendar. One year ago, the street circuit delivered Lawson’s best result in Racing Bulls colours: fifth place in the race after qualifying a superb third at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The walls are close, the margins are thin, and Lawson has already shown he can dance on that edge.

He returns knowing exactly what this car can do on these streets – and what he can do with it.

Constructors’ fight tightening

While Lawson was away, Racing Bulls felt the squeeze.

Their cushion over Alpine in the constructors’ championship has been trimmed to just 11 points. The gap would be even smaller without a major twist earlier in the year, when Pierre Gasly was stripped of his podium finish from the Monaco Grand Prix, handing Racing Bulls an unexpected boost in the standings.

That reprieve has bought them time, not comfort. With the season deepening and midfield points at a premium, every result now carries weight. Lawson’s 14 points for Red Bull showed what he can deliver; Racing Bulls will expect that level, or close to it, back in their own garage.

Baku under lights, and a familiar stage

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend fires up on Thursday night (NZT), shifted forward by a day to avoid clashing with the country’s annual remembrance day on September 27. The schedule tweak only adds to the sense of a slightly altered stage for a very familiar storyline.

Lawson arrives with recent form, a car he knows, and a circuit that has already framed one of his standout performances. Racing Bulls arrive needing a response in the constructors’ fight.

He has turned heads as a deputy. Now, with the focus squarely back on his own team, the question is simple: can he turn that into something permanent on one of Formula 1’s most unforgiving streets?