Nationality: New Zealander
Birthday: 11 February 2022
Current team: Racing Bulls
Previous teams: Red Bull
Number: 30
Strengths: Aggressiveness, toughness
Weaknesses: Qualifying pace, consistency
Strongest tracks: Bahrain, Belgium, Singapore, Austria
Weakest tracks: Qatar, Spain, Imola, Hungary
(Based mainly on junior series; will be updated later with more F1 data)
Statistics
Grand Prix wins: 0
Pole Positions: 0
Fastest laps: 0
Podiums: 0
World Championships: 0
F1 teammate record H2H
Total Q record: 2-16
Total R record: 5-12
| Team mate | Q record | R record |
| Hadjar (2025) | 1-4 | 0-5 |
| Verstappen (2025) | 0-2 | 0-2 |
| Tsunoda (2023-24) | 1-10 | 5-5 |
Pre-F1 championship results
3rd in Formula 2 (2022)
9th in Formula 2 (2021)
5th in Formula 3 (2020)
Won in Toyota Racing Series (2019)
Accomplishments in other series
2nd in Super Formula (2023)
2nd in DTM (2021)
Career analysis
Liam Lawson is an extremely interesting prospect, as it’s difficult to project his exact level. He never looked like a top-class driver in the classic junior series (F2, F3) but did show occasional highs with his racepace and aggressiveness in wheel-to-wheel battles.
However, in other racing series, he was much more impressive. While driving in F2 in 2021, he was also taking part in DTM, finishing second in that championship as a rookie – and ahead of Alex Albon, by the way.
Red Bull sent him to Japan to participate in Super Formula in 2023, where he was impressive yet again. Alongside many experienced drivers, he was among the best and finished 2nd overall, winning 3 of 9 rounds and taking pole at the final round at Suzuka.
Lawson was allowed to stand in for Daniel Ricciardo in some F1 rounds in 2023. While behind in qualifying, he showed great racepace and had his most impressive performance at Singapore, a notoriously difficult track. Over the entire course of his young career, Lawson has shown great adaptability.
Fans wanted to see Lawson permanently in F1 with Racing Bulls in 2024. He did not start the season as a race driver with the team but was eventually promoted. This time, he was fairly beaten by Tsunoda, although not as much as it appeared. Tsunoda won 6-0 in qualifying, but Lawson did have a bit of bad luck and would often outperform Tsunoda in sprint qualis (which are not accounted for in that 6-0 statistic). In races, Tsunoda had a slight advantage.
His promotion to Red Bull is perhaps a bit premature and, by some accounts, not fully earned, as Lawson has never finished higher than 9th in an F1 race. He has a skill-set that Helmut Marko likes, but does he have the pure pace to compete with the top drivers of the sport? Perhaps not, and facing F1’s most difficult challenge in being a teammate with Max Verstappen, Lawson will either swim or sink. No one expects him to beat Verstappen, but he would have to score lots of points and podiums to retain his seat for more than a single year.