30
Racing BullsLiam Lawson is a New Zealand Formula One driver racing for Racing Bulls in 2026. He spent two years as a reserve driver, made his debut as a stand-in, replaced Daniel Ricciardo twice, was promoted to Red Bull Racing as Max Verstappen's teammate for 2025, and was demoted after two rounds. He rebuilt his season at Racing Bulls, was the last driver confirmed on the 2026 grid, and enters his second full season with the smaller team alongside rookie Arvid Lindblad.
He is 24 years old.
| Full name | Liam Jared Lawson |
| Date of birth | 11 February 2002 |
| Birthplace | Hastings, New Zealand |
| Raised | Pukekohe, Auckland Region |
| Height | 172cm |
| Nationality | New Zealand |
| Current team | Racing Bulls |
| Car number | #30 |
| Mentor | Ken Smith, three-time New Zealand Grand Prix winner |
Lawson was born in Hastings and raised in Pukekohe, a town in the Auckland Region whose most prominent feature was Pukekohe Park Raceway. He began karting aged six at the Mt Wellington kart track in Auckland. His first competitive experience in single-seater cars came through the SpeedSport Scholarship, New Zealand's longest-running young driver development programme. Previous graduates include Shane van Gisbergen and Richie Stanaway. He described the desire to race as something he had known from the moment he first sat in a kart.
Lawson has raced with the number 30 since he was eight years old. He chose it in honour of his karting mentor, Ken Smith, the three-time New Zealand Grand Prix winner who guided his development from the beginning. When he reached Formula One, he brought the number with him.
In 2016, aged 15, Lawson entered the New Zealand Formula Ford (F1600) Championship. He took pole position in every one of the fifteen races. He set the fastest lap in every one of the fifteen races. He won fourteen of them. He finished second in the one he did not win. He clinched the championship on his birthday.
He was the youngest Formula Ford champion in the world at the time.
Lawson's early career is defined by a specific and unusual pattern: he won on his debut in Formula First, in Formula Ford, in Australian F4, in Formula Three Asia, and in the Toyota Racing Series. In 2017 he moved to Australian F4 with BRM, took five wins, and finished runner-up in only his first season. In 2018 he moved to the ADAC Formula 4 championship in Germany with Van Amersfoort Racing, backed by the New Zealand used car network Turner's, and finished runner-up again. He was rated by Driver Database as the best driver in the world for his age group for three consecutive years: his Top 16, Top 17, and Top 18 seasons each ranked first globally.
He was sixteen years old when he left New Zealand to live in the Netherlands and race in European single-seaters. The regulations required drivers to be at least sixteen to compete in European F4.
In January 2019, Lawson won the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand with M2 Competition, taking victory in the New Zealand Grand Prix in the process. That result led to his selection as a Red Bull Junior driver. He was seventeen.
He progressed to FIA Formula 3 in 2020 and FIA Formula 2 in 2021. He also won his first FIA F3 race at the Red Bull Ring in Austria and took a win at Mugello in the final race of the season.
In 2021, Lawson ran a dual programme: FIA Formula 2 with Hitech GP and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters with Red Bull AF Corse, driving a Ferrari 488 GT3 alongside Alex Albon. On his DTM debut at Monza he won the opening race, becoming the youngest race winner in DTM history.
He was building a championship. By the final round at the Norisring, he had accumulated enough points to lead the standings by 19 points. He was on pole for both races of the final weekend.
On Saturday, van der Linde attempted a late move into the hairpin at Turn 2 and made contact with Lawson. Lawson survived it. On Sunday, van der Linde did the same thing again at the same corner on the opening lap of the championship-deciding race. This time the contact caused severe suspension damage to Lawson's Ferrari. His car was 20 seconds a lap slower than the leaders. He was lapping at the back of the field.
His team did not retire him. He spent the race watching the championship he had built all season dissolve from the cockpit of a broken car.
Then, with a handful of laps remaining, Mercedes instructed two of their drivers who were running first and second, Lucas Auer and Philip Ellis, to slow and let Maximilian Gotz through. Gotz took the lead on lap 64 of 67. He won the race and the championship. The margin over Lawson at the end of the season was three points.
Lawson called van der Linde an "idiot" and described him as the dirtiest driver he had raced against. Van der Linde apologised publicly days later, saying he had contacted Lawson by phone and acknowledged that his actions had cost him the championship.
The stewards had issued van der Linde a five-second penalty for cutting the corner in the incident. He was not excluded from the results.
Lawson moved to Carlin for the 2022 Formula 2 season, taking four wins and finishing third in the championship. He also served as a reserve and test driver for AlphaTauri, making his FP1 debut at the Belgian Grand Prix that year. In 2023 he moved to Super Formula in Japan with Mugen, finishing runner-up in the championship. He was simultaneously Red Bull's reserve driver.
In June 2022, following reserve driver Juri Vips' use of a racial slur on a Twitch livestream, Red Bull confirmed that Lawson would replace Vips as their primary reserve driver, a role he had not been scheduled to hold.
On the Friday of the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix weekend, Daniel Ricciardo crashed in FP2 and broke his hand. Lawson was called. He had one practice session before qualifying. He qualified twentieth. In a race run in changing conditions, he drove from nineteenth to thirteenth, beating his nominal teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Franz Tost confirmed he would continue for the Italian Grand Prix. He would race for five consecutive Grands Prix as Ricciardo's replacement.
Before the Singapore qualifying session, Red Bull told Lawson there would be no room for him in their 2024 lineup. He went out in qualifying and put himself tenth on the grid, knocking the reigning world champion Max Verstappen out of the second qualifying segment. He finished the race ninth, scoring his first Formula One points.
He returned to the reserve role after the Qatar Grand Prix.
Ricciardo was dropped by RB after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix. On 26 September 2024, Lawson was confirmed as his replacement for the remaining six races. At the United States Grand Prix, he started nineteenth due to engine penalties and finished ninth. Christian Horner praised the performance.
He took further points at São Paulo. Despite an inconsistent second half of that six-race stint, on 19 December 2024, Red Bull announced that Lawson would replace Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen's teammate for the 2025 season.
The 2025 season began in Australia and China. Neither round went well. On 27 March 2025, after the Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull announced a driver swap. Yuki Tsunoda would move to the senior team. Lawson would return to Racing Bulls from the Japanese Grand Prix onwards.
He had partnered the four-time world champion for two rounds. He had been promoted and demoted inside ten weeks.
The Racing Bulls comeback was difficult. His rookie teammate Isack Hadjar outshone him across the season. Lawson scored his first points of 2025 at Monaco, then qualified third and finished fifth at Azerbaijan, an eye catching result in a car that was not expected to perform at that level that weekend. He outqualified Verstappen on two occasions during the season.
He learned he would be retained by Racing Bulls only in the break between the Qatar and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix. He was the last driver confirmed anywhere on the 2026 grid.
Hadjar, his 2025 teammate, was promoted to Red Bull for 2026. The seat Lawson had occupied for two races.
Lawson enters 2026 partnered at Racing Bulls by rookie Arvid Lindblad. The 2026 cars, with new power units and aerodynamic regulations, are unfamiliar to everyone. He described them as not "super fun" to drive due to the significant reduction in downforce, but said reliability had been encouraging in pre-season testing. Racing Bulls will run Red Bull-Ford power units.
He said he felt more comfortable and excited entering 2026 than at any previous point, while acknowledging the unknowns of the new regulations. He described 2025 as something he was grateful to have experienced.
The 2026 season is a reset for the whole grid. For Lawson, it is also a statement of intent.
Lawson plays guitar and has recorded music. He was inspired as a child by Lightning McQueen from the animated film Cars — the source he cited when asked about his earliest racing motivation. He grew up in a small New Zealand town beside a race circuit, with a mentor who had won the New Zealand Grand Prix three times, and left for Europe at sixteen to race in a language he had not grown up around, in conditions completely different from the circuits he had learned on.
| Year | Team | Races | Wins | Podiums | Points | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | AlphaTauri | 5* | 0 | 0 | 2 | 18th |
| 2024 | RB / Racing Bulls | 6* | 0 | 0 | 4 | 17th |
| 2025 | Red Bull (2) + Racing Bulls (22) | 24 | 0 | 0 | ~23 | ~15th |
| 2026 | Racing Bulls | — | — | — | — | In progress |
*Partial season as stand-in
Last updated March 2026
