To this point in 2026, Liam Lawson has been a transparent standout performer in Formulation 1’s midfield.
Lawson has scored 83 factors to this point, practically twice as many as second-best Pierre Gasly’s 42 – and that’s not even all the way down to his Pink Bull stint, throughout which he barely scored extra factors per race than with Racing Bulls (4.67 vs 4.31).
But, there’s a considerable likelihood Lawson loses his seat on the Faenza-based outfit – and on the F1 grid altogether – for the 2027 season.
Formulation 2 title contender Nikola Tsolov emerged as a frontrunner for the second Racing Bulls seat as he claimed a whopping six victories throughout the primary 14 races of the 2026 season, however his qualifying tempo has not been pretty much as good as his essential rivals’ and he has failed to achieve the highest step of the rostrum within the final 11 contests.
Nonetheless, the 19-year-old Bulgarian is simply seven factors down on championship chief Rafael Camara – who is ready to make his F1 debut with Haas this weekend on the Brazil GP – so he nonetheless has real championship possibilities.
In the meantime, with Arvid Lindblad’s stable F1 rookie marketing campaign, Lawson’s time in Faenza appeared destined to finish. However after being outperformed by each considered one of his team-mates to date – Yuki Tsunoda, Max Verstappen, Isack Hadjar – Lawson has had the higher hand on Lindblad.
In qualifying, Lawson leads their head-to-head 12-6, with a 0.072s benefit discounting the unrepresentative Melbourne session – that’s 9-5 and a 0.027s hole with out dash qualifying. Extra apparently, he’s 0.141s sooner than his team-mate on common in race trim.
And during the last month, Lawson has confirmed to be a not simply aggressive but additionally protected pair of fingers. In qualifying, he hasn’t been outqualified on advantage, lapping 0.257s sooner on common, since he returned to Racing Bulls after his three-round stint at Pink Bull, standing in for Isack Hadjar.
The New Zealander has collected 24 factors within the final 4 grands prix – greater than Hadjar and George Russell. Hindered by a grid penalty in Malaysia and a collision with Oscar Piastri in Mexico, Lindblad has scored only one within the meantime.
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
Picture by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Photos by way of Getty Photos
Pink Bull’s upcoming choice for 2027 could hinge on one easy query: do Lawson’s latest drives counsel he would possibly ever be deserving of one other likelihood on the essential staff?
If that’s the case, Tsolov could need to bide his time – maybe in Tremendous Formulation, the place a number of different Pink Bull juniors competed after graduating from GP2/F2. That avenue led to F1 drives for Pierre Gasly and that very Lawson.
But when Pink Bull sees no reasonable path again to Milton Keynes for Lawson, nevertheless onerous to disregard his present efficiency is, then protecting him at Racing Bulls gained’t make as a lot sense, and Tsolov could get his likelihood to shine.
And with each factors end, Lawson will get the identical query about his future. In Mexico’s post-race media pen, he was once more requested if it was a disgrace that his seat was nonetheless a matter of uncertainty regardless of the ‘enormous’ hole to Lindblad.
“It’s clearly a large disgrace, nevertheless it’s one thing that I’m simply having to take care of in the meanwhile,” he responded. “I’m clearly attempting to do the whole lot I can every time I get within the race automobile.”
Let’s see if that shall be sufficient.
Extra reporting by Kevin Hermann
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