Liam Lawson makes F1 history with unlikely shot at Red Bull redemption

Liam Lawson replaces Isack Hadjar, who replaced Yuki Tsunoda, who replaced Lawson, whilst Tsunoda replaces Lawson alongside Arvid Lindblad, who replaced Hadjar, who replaced Lawson, who replaced Daniel Ricciardo, and then who replaced Sergio Perez. 

Or, to put it another way, Lawson replaces the driver at Red Bull, who replaced his replacement.

The New Zealander is to step back up to the senior Red Bull team for this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix after Hadjar was sidelined with a wrist injury sustained whilst training. Tsunoda has been drafted in to replace Lawson alongside Lindblad as Lawson returns to be Max Verstappen's team-mate following his two-race spell in early 2025.

There, Lawson was removed after the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix, having been promoted to replace Perez with just 11 grand prix starts to his name. An engine problem cost him track time in practice, before the wet race chaos ended with him crashing into the barrier, one of many to do so.

In China, a venue he had never driven at, Lawson again struggled in the tricky RB21, and was promptly replaced and sent back to Racing Bulls, with Tsunoda stepping in from the Japanese GP.

In being promoted back to the senior Red Bull team, Lawson has become the first driver removed from the seat to earn his way back. 

Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, and Tsunoda himself all failed to return to the seat after being axed, with the impressive Lawson slowly rebuilding his career since the swap. 

In the first-half of the 2026 season, he is ninth in the drivers' standings on 43 points, taking a best of sixth in Monaco and Great Britain. It means he is the best-placed driver from outside Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, or Red Bull. 

With the RB22 expected to be capable of challenging near the head of the field, Lawson will be looking to score the first podium from a New Zealander since Denny Hulme's second place at the 1974 Austrian GP - 913 grands prix ago.