Liam Lawson anticipates conversations with Red Bull over his F1 future will begin over the summer break, with the New Zealander vying to keep his seat at Racing Bulls.
There is not currently any indication that he could seek pastures new outside of the joint Milton Keynes-Faenza operation, with the current expectation that the plan is to continue alongside Arvid Lindblad in 2027.
Meanwhile, the emergence of Nikola Tsolov in F2 this season leaves Red Bull in a good position, but with a difficult decision to make given there are three promising drivers for just two Racing Bulls seats.
However, having amassed 43 points from the opening 11 rounds, Lawson is more than making a strong case to be retained.
Red Bull tends to prefer to wait until the end of the season before making its final decision on its race seats, but the uncertainty over Max Verstappen's future could prompt the six-time constructors' champions to act sooner this year.
That would be to the benefit of Lawson, who has previously stated he would much rather know sooner rather than later — if not only for the fact it would provide him more time to find a new home, and keep more options on the table, if he does ultimately lose his seat.
When asked if sorting out his future is going to be a priority when F1 returns at the end of August, Lawson shared that he is not currently in the loop over his fate.
"Oh, me personally? I actually have no idea," the Racing Bulls driver said to media, including RacingNews365.
"I think that stuff... that conversation is normally around summer break. So I'm sure there'll be discussions around that."
Racing Bulls boss Alan Permane has stated that Tsolov is not only "next in line" at Red Bull, but also very much on the "radar" for next season.
With the Briton confirming a call will be made on the Bulgarian driver, who leads the F2 drivers' championship, later in the campaign, that timeframe falls in line with what Lawson expects over the summer shutdown.
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