Liam Lawson believes having a complete pre-season with Racing Bulls for the first time in his career has been central to the team’s improved form through the opening stretch of the 2026 Formula 1 season
The New Zealander joined Racing Bulls‘ 2026 campaign having gone through the full winter programme with the squad — a first for him, and one that arrived just as Formula 1’s major regulation reset took hold.
His previous pre-season, in 2025, had instead been spent at Red Bull, a stint that lasted only two Grands Prix before he was moved back to the sister team, leaving him without proper build-up time on last year’s car.
That gap has been closed this year, and the results have followed. Lawson has taken points in seven of the season’s nine races so far, adding two Sprint finishes to that tally, as Racing Bulls has established itself as F1’s fifth-quickest outfit across recent rounds, alongside the mightily impressive rookie Arvid Lindblad in the second car.
Asked what had driven the step forward, Lawson pointed to the value of simply being present for the car’s development from the outset, rather than joining the project mid-stream.
“I mean, everything helps,” Lawson said. “Naturally, the more experience you have in anything, the more it helps.
“But I think this year, coming in, especially with these new cars, it makes a big difference doing all the pre-season development.
“Being exactly aware of where we’re focused on the car, what we are developing — I think it all makes a big difference.”
With Racing Bulls building momentum through the summer, Lawson’s comments suggest the team’s early-season gains owe as much to continuity and preparation as to any single technical breakthrough — a foundation the outfit will be hoping to build on as the season moves into its second half.
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