Lawson says 2026 Red Bull outings showed he could handle the RB22

Liam Lawson says his 2026 appearances alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull showed he could handle the RB22 — and, as he put it, “any car”. The spell went much better than his first two Red Bull races in 2025, after which he was sent back to Racing Bulls. Lawson got another opportunity when Isack Hadjar was injured; Yuki Tsunoda took Lawson’s Racing Bulls seat for three races.

Lawson said his difficult start in 2025 led to suggestions that he might not be good enough for Red Bull. He pointed to the lack of preparation: half a day at the private Jerez test, a Bahrain test that did not go entirely to plan, an engine problem that kept him out of third practice in Melbourne, and a sprint race in China.

The temporary move from Racing Bulls back to Red Bull in 2026 was “extremely hard”, Lawson said. He had to adjust to another team’s routines and described the weeks around the switch as intense. Still, he said the experience had not harmed him personally: seeing a car from another perspective was interesting, and his time in different cars had helped him adapt.

One possible downside, he said, was that his team had scored fewer points while fighting for fifth in the 2026 constructors’ championship. Lawson added that he has never completed a full season with one team and believes that experience helps him adjust to new situations.