Liam Lawson dilemma amplifies Racing Bulls' identity crisis

Red Bull has a Liam Lawson problem.

Lawson, as I have said so many times this year, has been one of the standout performers in F1 this season. That should not, and cannot, be understated. In fact, you start to run out of ways to do his results justice; to fairly describe how impressive he's been.

The Racing Bulls driver is comfortably best of the rest behind the top four teams. Even if you take out his three rounds deputising for the injured Isack Hadjar at Red Bull, he is still a country mile clear of Alpine's Pierre Gasly in the hunt for ninth in the drivers' standings.

On 77 points to the Frenchman's 42, 14 of that haul was earned behind the wheel of the RB22, meaning 63 were claimed in the usual cockpit of his VCARB 03, outpacing Gasly at a clip of three to two — in three fewer rounds, no less.

Those grands prix alongside Max Verstappen have done his prospects no harm at all. Even if they did not secure his future at Racing Bulls, you'd think they guarantee him a future in F1 in some way, shape or form.

He might argue it wasn't vindication or redemption, that there were no wrongs to right from his brief tenure at Red Bull in 2025, but when the chips were down, and the stakes were at their highest, Lawson stood up and demanded he be counted. Consider that particular demon vanquished.

I can't stand the word 'deserves' when it comes to sport. You don't deserve anything; sometimes the best wins, sometimes they don't. But you do earn things, and Lawson has done all he can and more to earn his place on the grid next term.

So, full disclosure, if I were a decision-maker at Red Bull, I'd have re-signed him to a new contract yesterday.

And therein lies the issue for the top brass at the energy drinks manufacturer's racing team: Lawson wasn't meant to be performing this well. At least, according to the designs of the old Racing Bulls.

The internal struggle

But new era, new requirements, and that is what the team must grapple with.

Because, underneath the immediate call on whether to retain Lawson for next season, Racing Bulls must decide what type of team it wants to be moving forward, and its driver line-up is emblematic of that.

Since purchasing the team from Minardi and becoming Toro Rosso in 2006, the Faenza-based squad has evolved through various guises to become the pithy and undeniably catchy Visa Cash App Racing Bulls — or just Racing Bulls to you and me — it is today.

That is not the identity crisis I speak of. Because I, like so few, kind of love the sheer audacity of the team's full name. It plays into the effervescent charm of a team that doesn't take itself too seriously — and it's great for sponsorship...

Racing Bulls is playful, fun, incontrovertibly cool, and finds a deep and delightful passion in ragebaiting (poking fun at to the non-Gen Z amongst us) its two drivers — the poor, now not-so-unsuspecting Lawson and rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad — for social media likes.

There is an ease to all the team is and represents. But it has a decidedly not-easy dilemma on its hands: keep Lawson for 2027, or promote highly-touted junior driver Nikola Tsolov?

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A larger question to answer

Now, the part Racing Bulls would probably like me to write is that neither of its two race seats has been officially confirmed yet, so it isn't strictly a Lawson vs. Tsolov scenario.

In reality, it has three really good options for just two seats. However, for all intents and purposes, it is being read as advertised, because Lindblad has strung together an eye-catching rookie season and is just 19 years of age, meaning he has bags of potential and plenty of time — and room — to grow.

Lawson, on the other hand, is basically Jurassic at 24 years old. And this tension typifies the internal struggle: What sort of team does Racing Bulls want to be?

Choosing Tsolov over Lawson wouldn't, in itself, contradict the argument that Racing Bulls is its own team, but it cuts to the heart of a larger question.

Does it wish to be a farm for emerging talent, all with the sole aim of producing a driver who may emulate the great achievements of Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen, one that casts aside talented drivers when it becomes apparent they fall short of that admittedly sky-high standard?

Or does Racing Bulls also desire to be a legitimate entity in its own right, stepping out of the shadow of its big sister with its own values and identity?

Because of the so-called B-team structure, it will likely never compete for consistent wins and championships. Doing so would be superfluous given that Red Bull exists. But that doesn't make Racing Bulls redundant. The team could aspire to be the best of the rest, as it and Lawson undoubtedly are this season, in addition to having its own personality.

Helmut Marko, the architect and champion of the team's ruthless and unforgiving farm system, weighed in last week, arguing that by the old way of doing things, Lawson's Racing Bulls seat should go to Tsolov. I'm sure that was viewed as particularly helpful.

Much of what Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies said when he was at the helm of the second team, and what CEO Peter Bayer and current team principal Alan Permane continue to say on the matter, points to a Racing Bulls that is unapologetically itself and has a core purpose beyond only developing talent for its sister operation, which it just so happens to be owned by, even if it is an important aspect.

If it is more than just a mere proving ground and a stepping stone to Red Bull, now is the time to prove that.

For if that truly is the case, by extension of that logic, there should be no qualms in extending Lawson's stay. Because, as already stressed, he has more than earned it.