Bayer: In several races Lawson was faster than Hadjar.
Peter Bayer, the executive director of Racing Bulls, spoke about what was the main argument in favor of Liam Lawson when the team decided to extend his contract for the 2026 season.
The past season was uneven for the New Zealand driver: he started it with Red Bull Racing, but the results were clearly below expectations, so after just two rounds Lawson was returned to the “junior” team, and Yuki Tsunoda became Max Verstappen’s new teammate.
After that, Liam only managed to score points at the end of May in Monaco, but he then finished in the top ten six more times, with his best result being 5th place at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
In an interview with RacingNews365, Bayer said that Lawson fits Racing Bulls well, and the team decided to continue working with him for another season.
“We’ve known him since that infamously bad day in Zandvoort,” Peter Bayer recalled, referring to Lawson’s Formula 1 debut in August 2023, when he was urgently called up to replace Daniel Ricciardo, who had been injured in practice. “He was already the reserve driver then and always fit our team well.
In terms of results, to be honest we saw his performance stabilizing, and I think that was the most important argument for us when we decided to sign him for the next year.
He returned to Racing Bulls after some upheaval, but such things sometimes happen, everyone understands that, and it is one of the strengths of our group. We continue to nurture talented drivers, so we are used to changes, even if they occur during the season. No one panicked about the driver change; for us it was always normal: ‘OK, fine, let’s take Liam back into the team.’
He very much shares our ideology, having been in the Red Bull junior program for many years and having done everything right last year. Despite all the pace problems in several races he was faster than Hadjar. We need to keep working with Liam to improve his qualifying pace, but he has decent potential.”
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Bayer: In several races Lawson was faster than Hadjar.
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