Liam Lawson found out he was driving a Red Bull again before he had even unbuckled his seatbelt. That about sums up the chaos of this particular call-up, and yet the New Zealander sounds remarkably calm about the whole thing.
We have already covered why this Red Bull opportunity is so significant for Lawson: Isack Hadjar suffered a wrist injury during the summer break, Liam Lawson steps up from Racing Bulls, and Yuki Tsunoda slots in at the sister team. That is the context. What is more interesting is how Lawson himself is thinking about it.
The Phone Call That Changed the Week
Lawson had landed back in the UK on Monday morning expecting nothing more dramatic than simulator work with Racing Bulls. He did not even make it off the aircraft before the world shifted.
“I literally landed, I hadn’t even got off the plane. Alan [Permane] called me and basically told me what was going on. So my week changed pretty quickly.” – Liam Lawson
Alan Permane is presumably not in the habit of making small talk. One phone call, and suddenly Lawson’s week of routine preparation became a scramble to get simulator time in the Red Bull RB22, a car he has never raced competitively and which is, by his own admission, considerably different from what he drives week to week.
He managed one simulator session before arriving at Zandvoort. One. For context, most drivers preparing for a new car have weeks of back-to-back simulator runs, data reviews and engineering briefings. Lawson had the weekend of a man who booked a last-minute flight and hoped for the best. The fact that he sounds anything other than terrified is either a very good sign or a very well-rehearsed media face.
Not a Redemption Tour, Just a Race Weekend
The temptation, from the outside, is to frame this as Lawson charging back into the arena to settle old scores. His previous Red Bull stint, a two-race horror show at the start of 2025, ended with him being swapped out for Tsunoda in what was one of the more blunt personnel decisions in recent memory. The narrative practically writes itself: disgraced driver returns for revenge.
Lawson is not playing that game.
“I haven’t really looked at it like that. For me we’ve had a really good year so far, and obviously I’m grateful to have been chosen for something like this. But I’m really focused on trying to get something out of the weekend.” – Liam Lawson
It is worth taking that at face value, at least partially. Lawson has had a genuinely solid 2026 with Racing Bulls, eight top-ten finishes in the first eleven rounds, and 43 points in the championship. He is not arriving as a desperate man clutching at a lifeline. He is arriving as a driver with form, confidence and something to prove on his own terms rather than anyone else’s.
That is a meaningfully different headspace from last year, and it probably matters more than any amount of simulator preparation.
Verstappen as a Reference Point
One of the more revealing details to emerge from Thursday’s media day, reported by RacingNews365, is that Lawson has already spoken to Max Verstappen and has access to his teammate’s simulator data as a reference.
“I’ve spoken to Max. I’m sure I will be looking at a lot of what he’s doing tomorrow. I have his simulator stuff as well as a reference to look at.” – Liam Lawson
Using Verstappen’s data as a benchmark is both sensible and slightly nerve-wracking as a concept. There are worse references to have, obviously. But when the benchmark is a four-time world champion who has driven this car in anger all season, the gap between reference and reality can be a sobering one. Lawson knows this, which is presumably why he keeps using the word “challenging” with such frequency.
The Sprint Format Makes Everything Harder
Zandvoort this weekend is not a standard Grand Prix format. It is a Sprint weekend, which means Lawson’s learning curve is compressed to an almost cruel degree. Where a conventional weekend offers two practice sessions before qualifying, a Sprint format offers one practice session before Sprint Qualifying. One session. In an unfamiliar car. At a track that is genuinely unforgiving.
“It’s a Sprint weekend, so it’s going to be a quick learning process tomorrow. That’s what we’re focused on, that’s what we tried to do yesterday in the simulator. If we can try and speed up that learning process as much as possible, then that would help our weekend.” – Liam Lawson
Interestingly, Zandvoort carries its own specific history for Lawson. His Formula 1 debut came at this very circuit in 2023, when he replaced Daniel Ricciardo after Ricciardo suffered a hand injury in practice. Now, in 2026, he is here again replacing a driver who has hurt his wrist. He has acknowledged this parallel himself, noting that the 2023 weekend was probably the toughest of his career. He would rather this one did not top it.
Risk, Opportunity and the Bigger Picture
There is a legitimate question about whether this weekend carries real risk to Lawson’s reputation. If he struggles badly against Verstappen’s benchmark, that narrative from 2025 gets a fresh coat of paint. If he impresses, it strengthens his case for whatever comes next in the driver market, a subject that is very much alive given the unsettled state of the 2027 grid.
Lawson was asked directly whether he sees this as a chance to give Red Bull a selection headache for their second seat next year. His answer was precise and rather clever: focus on the weekend, the championship with Racing Bulls is still very much real, one weekend is too short to draw conclusions anyway. All of that is true. None of it is the full picture, and everyone in that paddock knows it.
The honest assessment is that Lawson is handling this with more maturity and less baggage than many drivers would manage in the same situation. He is not trying to make this mean more than it does, and he is not pretending it means less. That is the right calibration.
Whether the car cooperates is, as always in Formula 1, an entirely separate matter.
