Liam Lawson

Liam Lawson Table: 2023: P20, 2 pts, 0 wins 2024: P21, 4 pts, 0 wins 2025: P14, 38 pts, 0 wins 2026: P9, 65 pts, 0 wins

Liam Lawson is a New Zealander racing for RB F1 Team with race number 30, the latest product of the Red Bull driver system to make good on a long apprenticeship. After a part‑time debut in 2023, he has turned steady progress into hard points: 38 in 2025 and, with the 2026 season still in progress, 65 so far, without a win yet but firmly in the top ten on the standings.

Early roots and Red Bull

Born in Hastings in 2002, Lawson came through the New Zealand karting and junior single‑seater scene before moving to Europe as a teenager. He joined the Red Bull junior programme and spent several seasons racing on the continent, tying himself into the company’s pipeline of test, reserve and eventual race duties. That link kept him close to the Formula 1 paddock long before his debut, with Red Bull’s second team the most likely landing spot.

Breakthrough as a stand‑in

Lawson’s first Formula 1 start came in 2023 with Scuderia AlphaTauri as an injury replacement, a call that arrived on a race weekend and thrust him straight into grand prix conditions. He qualified and raced solidly on debut and, crucially, turned one of his starts into points soon after: ninth place at the Singapore Grand Prix, a calm, tidy drive in difficult conditions that underlined his readiness. The campaign was short, but it placed him on the board with 2 points and a final classification of 20th in the drivers’ standings for 2023. It also re‑introduced a New Zealander to the F1 grid for the first time since Brendon Hartley, renewing a Kiwi thread that runs back to Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme.

Building a place on the grid

The following season added more race mileage and more points. Lawson finished 2024 with 4 points and 21st in the standings, a modest return on paper but one that kept him present and useful inside the Red Bull system as the organisation’s second team transitioned into its RB identity. By 2025 he had a regular set of starts and a meaningful step: 38 points and 14th in the championship, without a win but with enough scoring consistency to sit mid‑pack.

2026 so far

Lawson’s 2026 is his strongest yet. Driving for RB F1 Team, he sits ninth in the standings with 65 points and no wins to date, a clear upward slope from the previous year and evidence that he is converting opportunities when they come. The picture is still incomplete – the season is ongoing – but the scoreboard shows that he has become a regular presence in the points and a meaningful contributor to RB’s campaign. If nothing else, it confirms that his early‑career foothold has become a proper seat.

A Kiwi presence and a measured approach

The 2023 Singapore result signposted a driver able to adapt quickly and avoid mistakes when a chaotic race offered chances; that impression has persisted as he has settled into full‑time F1 life. His path has been conventional in one sense – a Red Bull junior rising through the ranks to its senior competitions – and unusual in another, given the way his first points came as a stand‑in before the full opportunity arrived. He races under the number 30.

The statistics tell a simple story so far, and an accurate one: 2023 ended with 2 points and 20th overall, 2024 with 4 points and 21st, 2025 with 38 points and 14th, and 2026 currently with 65 points and ninth. The absence of a win on that record does not diminish the progress; rather, it shows a driver climbing steadily in a competitive midfield, learning on Sundays and converting more of those lessons into results. Lawson has taken the opportunities he had and made them count, moving from emergency substitute to established RB driver without fanfare but with obvious effectiveness.

Liam Lawson is 24 years old, was born in Hastings, New Zealand and first entered Formula 1 in 2023. The New Zealander driver races for RB F1 Team under number 30.