Lawson admits Red Bull route to F1 title ‘not so clear’ after bruising 2025 start
Liam Lawson didn’t need to say much in the Zandvoort garage on Sunday; the picture said plenty. Chin in hand, eyes fixed on the floor, a driver recalibrating. Minutes later, he put words to it: his dream of becoming Formula 1 world champion may not be realised in Red Bull colours.
Promoted to the senior team alongside Max Verstappen for 2025 after Sergio Perez moved on, Lawson’s rise was rapid — 11 grands prix with Racing Bulls across 2023 and 2024, then straight into the hottest seat in the sport. The reality bit hard. He qualified 18th for his Red Bull debut in Melbourne and crashed out in the rain. China, a double header of pain: last on the grid for both sprint and grand prix. Days after Shanghai, the axe fell. Lawson was sent back to Racing Bulls; Yuki Tsunoda was vaulted into the main team for Japan, becoming Verstappen’s third teammate in four races.
Since then, the narrative inside Red Bull’s orbit has kept shifting. Tsunoda’s banked just seven points in the role. Isack Hadjar, meanwhile, has lit up the other side of the garage. The French rookie delivered Racing Bulls’ first podium since Baku 2021 with a clinical drive to third at Zandvoort, and the paddock murmur now has him front and centre for a 2026 Red Bull Racing seat.
That all sets the backdrop for Lawson’s candid self-assessment. Speaking to Sky F1, he let the guard drop.
“As much as I wanted to be a Red Bull Racing driver — that’s what I worked towards from becoming a Red Bull junior — the dream I’ve had since I was five years old has been world champion,” he said. “And I think where I do that is not so clear as much as I thought it was.”
There’s a sting in that line. For years, the Red Bull ladder has been both elevator and trapdoor. When it works, it’s ruthless in the best way. When it doesn’t, it’s just ruthless. Lawson now knows both sides. He also knows he didn’t get time.
“I was [at Red Bull for] two races, on two tracks I’d never been to,” he said. “Maybe I was naive to think that I would be given the time to adapt… You always learn things afterwards… in hindsight, there’s always things you can do better.”
There was empathy, too, for Tsunoda — even if Lawson feels their circumstances aren’t quite comparable. “It’s really tough,” he added. “I definitely feel sympathy for a driver that’s struggling in that position… But it’s hard for me to relate because I didn’t even get to a track that I’d driven before.”
Strip the emotion away and you’re left with a stark competitive equation. Red Bull need someone who can live — or at least survive — alongside Verstappen. Tsunoda’s points return hasn’t ended the conversation. Hadjar is putting his name in bold. Lawson, back in the junior team, is trying to make his case the longer way round.
He’s right about one thing: the path from Faenza to world champion has rarely been linear. Red Bull will always do what Red Bull think is fastest, and the cast list can change by Tuesday. Lawson’s admission that his title ambitions might lie outside the program is both pragmatic and, if you’ve watched his journey, entirely understandable. The New Zealander doesn’t sound like a driver giving up; he sounds like one widening the map.
Where could that be? That’s a 2026 question as the next rules reset tempts teams and drivers into bigger bets. For now, Lawson’s job is simpler and harder: keep scoring, keep leading Racing Bulls, and keep giving decision-makers an uncomfortable choice. Zandvoort showed what momentum looks like in that garage. He’ll want to be the other half of it.
And Red Bull? They’ve got a championship leader on one side and a headache on the other. Some things never change.
