Liam Lawson has expressed regret that his short-lived spell with Red Bull in Formula 1 denied him the chance to learn more from his time alongside Max Verstappen.
Lawson began the season with Red Bull’s senior side, but his spell as Verstappen’s team-mate lasted two rounds as a dream opportunity descended into a nightmare.
The New Zealander enduring consecutive point-less weekends was enough to prompt Red Bull to enact a change, with Lawson exchanging places with Yuki Tsunoda.
Lawson has admitted his abrupt demotion to Racing Bulls restricted the lessons that he was able to obtain from the privilege of observing Verstappen’s data in depth.
“I was very excited to have that opportunity to basically see everything that he was doing in detail,” he recalled to RacingNews365.
“Because I think the thing is, to be honest, we have so much data shared across teams at the moment.
“It’s very simple data, but as a driver, it’s the main stuff that we’re looking at, speed traces, where somebody’s braking, throttle places, gears, things like that that we use.
“We actually can see across the grid what people are doing. So I already compare with Max a lot to see how he’s approaching corners and things like that.
“So it was the detailed stuff that you wouldn’t get across teams that I was excited to have, but in two weekends, it’s very hard to take too much from that.”
Lawson hasn’t contemplated Red Bull return
Tsunoda has coped little better in the RB21 since replacing Lawson despite his greater experience, as he has gone into the summer break without a point in six races.
His dismal run has coincided with Lawson sustaining a morale-boosting upturn with Racing Bulls as he managed back-to-back eighth places in Belgium and Hungary.
But while Red Bull will soon start to determine who should partner Verstappen in 2026, Lawson professed that he has not given much thought to his future prospects.
“Honestly, in terms of my future, it’s been so busy this year that I’m not really thinking about it,” he addressed to media including Motorsport Week.
“I’m focused on having some good races.
“Obviously, we’ve had some recently, but three of them isn’t enough over 12 races, or however many it’s been, so we need to do more of this, and then we’ll see.”
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