22/08/2026
This should be really good.
Guess what everyone? The wait is over! Tony Quinn Foundation Ambassador Liam Lawson is finally back in action this weekend, but in a twist absolutely none of us saw coming, he’ll be kicking off the second half of his Formula One season back behind the wheel of a Red Bull!
Regular Red Bull Racing driver and former teammate Isack Hadjar has been ruled out of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix after sustaining a wrist injury, opening the door for Liam to make a shock return to the main team for the first time since his brief stint at the beginning of last season.
The timing of the call-up couldn’t be much better for Liam either, with the 24-year-old arguably in the best form of his Formula One career. Across the opening 11 Grands Prix, he finished inside the points an impressive eight times, along with two further points finishes in the Sprint races in China and Britain.
Those results have seen Liam hold a place inside the Top 10 of the Drivers’ Championship since mid-March, with his eighth-place finish in Hungary moving him back up to ninth before the break. He now sits on a whopping 43 points, one clear of Pierre Gasly and officially leading the midfield battle.
Liam’s consistency, combined with teammate Arvid Lindblad’s efforts, also sees Racing Bulls sitting fifth in the Constructors’ Championship on 66 points. If they can maintain that position through to the end of the year, it would mark the best Constructors’ Championship finish in the team’s history.
For this weekend at least, former teammate Yuki Tsunoda will take over Liam’s Racing Bulls seat, while Liam’s attention shifts to helping Red Bull Racing add as many points as possible to its own championship tally. And of all the places for Liam to make his unexpected Red Bull return, Zandvoort seems pretty fitting.
The Dutch circuit will always hold some pretty special memories after playing host to his sudden Formula One debut back in 2023.
What looked set to be a regular reserve driver weekend on the sidelines quickly changed when then-AlphaTauri driver Daniel Ricciardo crashed during FP2 on Friday afternoon, breaking his hand after hitting the barriers at Turn 3 and handing the then 21-year-old Liam his Formula One debut.
With only the final 60-minute Practice session on Saturday before Qualifying, Liam had little time to settle into his new surroundings. Overnight rain made conditions tricky, with Liam one of several drivers to spin off the circuit during the session, though he would escape without damage. Come Qualifying, he would line up on the back row, but was surprisingly close to the cars ahead considering his limited preparation.
If being thrown into a Formula One car at the last minute wasn’t enough of a baptism of fire, things certainly didn’t get any easier on race day. Intermittent rain, Safety Cars, a red flag and rapidly changing conditions made for an incredibly challenging debut, but Liam kept his cool and brought the AlphaTauri home in an impressive 13th position, two places ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda. All things considered, a pretty solid Formula One debut for the Kiwi.
Two years later, Liam returned to Zandvoort as a full-time Formula One driver with Racing Bulls and immediately looked at home, comfortably progressing through to Q3 and securing a spot on the fourth row of the grid to set himself up for what looked to be a big Grand Prix.
During the race, Liam would move up to seventh and was looking on course for another strong haul of points when unfortunate contact with Carlos Sainz at Turn 1 left both cars with punctures. Forced to limp back to the pits, Liam’s hopes of another points finish were effectively over, though a determined recovery saw him fight his way back to 12th at the chequered flag.
This time around, Liam faces a very different challenge as he prepares to jump into the RB22 at short notice. With Zandvoort hosting the Sprint format for the first time, he’ll have just one 60-minute Practice session on Friday to get comfortable in the car before heading straight into Sprint Qualifying later that day.
The weather could make things even more interesting, with rain potentially playing a part across the weekend and adding another variable as Liam gets up to speed with the main team. With limited preparation and potentially tricky conditions to contend with, there’ll certainly be plenty thrown at him on his Red Bull return.
And for everyone following along back here in New Zealand, get ready for a couple of late nights! Sprint Qualifying gets underway at 2:30am NZT on Saturday morning, before the 24-lap Sprint follows at 10:00pm NZT on Saturday night. Grand Prix Qualifying then gets underway at 2:00am NZT on Sunday morning, with the weekend wrapping up with the 72-lap Dutch Grand Prix at 1:00am NZT on Monday morning.
If you want to follow Liam’s progress throughout the weekend, every session will be shown live on Sky Sport. Alternatively, you can catch all the action through the F1TV App, including access to Liam’s onboard feed. The full schedule can be found in our graphic below.
If you can’t catch the action live, be sure to keep an eye on our socials throughout the weekend for updates, followed by our full recap of Liam’s weekend on Monday afternoon.
What an opportunity this has suddenly become. Best of luck this weekend Liam, we can’t wait to see what you can do back in the Red Bull!
