- Liam Lawson will return to Racing Bulls for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as Isack Hadjar comes back from a wrist injury that kept him out for three races.
- Lawson scored points in two of his three starts covering for Hadjar, including a season-best sixth place finish in Spain.
- The demotion arrives 18 months after Red Bull’s infamous two-race removal of Lawson from the same seat, a moment he has spent the years afterward trying to leave behind.
A Second Chance That Was Never Going to Be Permanent
Liam Lawson knew the arrangement from the moment it began. When Isack Hadjar fractured his wrist in the summer shutdown, Red Bull needed a driver who could step into one of the most scrutinized seats in Formula 1 with no notice and no margin for a settling-in period. They turned to Lawson, the same driver they had unceremoniously dropped after just two races the previous year. Red Bull confirmed on Monday, September 22 that Hadjar has recovered and will return for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, which means Lawson’s second stint in the senior team ends after three races, exactly as everyone in the paddock understood it would from the start.
What makes this handover different from Lawson’s first Red Bull exit is the manner of it. There was no controversy this time, no sense that the team had panicked after a handful of difficult sessions. Lawson filled in at Zandvoort, Monza and Madrid, scoring points in two of the three, with a season-best sixth-place finish in Spain and a seventh at Zandvoort. Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said Lawson’s return reflected a far different situation than the chaotic circumstances of 2025, a marked shift in tone from a team that had previously offered little public defense of Lawson at the time of his original demotion.
The Shadow of What Happened Before
To understand why this quiet, professional handover means so much, it helps to remember how differently Lawson’s first Red Bull chapter ended. He was demoted after just two races in 2025, a decision that stunned much of the paddock and drew public criticism even from Max Verstappen, who called the move harsh given how little time Lawson had been given to adjust to the car. Lawson has described that period candidly in the years that followed, saying he was not given the preparation a rookie typically receives before being thrown into one of the sport’s most demanding seats, and that a setup change he agreed to try in China became the basis for a decision that had likely already been made. He has said he now prefers to think of that stretch as something to move past rather than revisit, describing his approach to the senior team afterward in blunt terms: he would rather treat it as though it never happened than let it define how he sees himself as a driver.
That history made this year’s recall carry extra scrutiny. Every session was measured not just against Hadjar’s absence but against the ghost of Lawson’s first attempt. Three races is a small sample, but it was enough to shift the narrative. Motorsport Week described the 2025 demotion as an embarrassment that ended up fueling Lawson’s 2026 form, a driver using the memory of being cut loose as fuel rather than letting it linger as doubt. He arrived at each of his three fill-in races with the look of someone who had nothing left to prove to himself, only to the team that had once decided two races was enough evidence to move on.
What Lawson Actually Gained
Beyond the points, Lawson used his three races to reset how he talks about his own ambitions inside the Red Bull structure. Asked about his long-term view of the senior team, Lawson explained that his priorities have shifted from his junior days chasing a Red Bull Racing seat specifically. “The goal has always been winning and getting to the top,” he said, “and it doesn’t need to be specific to where that is.” It is a strikingly different tone from a driver once consumed with reaching one particular seat on the grid, and it suggests Lawson has made peace with a career path that might not run through Red Bull Racing at all, even as he continues delivering results whenever the team calls on him.
Red Bull’s statement thanking Lawson for his professionalism, dedication and hard work across the fill-in stretch was more effusive than anything the team offered at the time of his original 2025 exit, a small but telling contrast in how the organization has chosen to handle this departure. Whether that is a reflection of genuine appreciation or simply better public relations management, the effect for Lawson is the same: he returns to Racing Bulls with his reputation enhanced rather than damaged, a very different outcome than the one he faced eighteen months ago.
Baku and What Comes After
Hadjar’s return puts Red Bull’s full-strength lineup back together for a Baku street circuit that has produced chaos in past seasons, including a qualifying session this year that featured a record six red flags. For Lawson, the move back to Racing Bulls is not a punishment so much as a return to the seat he has held for most of the season, a car and team he understands well after his own turbulent introduction to Red Bull’s driver pipeline. He will race Baku, Singapore and the remaining rounds for Racing Bulls, carrying momentum from a fill-in stretch that did what it needed to do: remind the paddock, and perhaps Red Bull’s own decision-makers, that the driver they let go in 2025 was never the problem the team’s decision implied.
Whether Lawson gets another opportunity at the senior team depends on factors well beyond his control, including Verstappen’s own future and whichever driver market maneuvering unfolds around Red Bull’s other seat heading into 2027. For now, Lawson has done what he set out to do this time: leave the senior team on his own terms, points on the board, reputation intact, and no controversy trailing him out the door. It is a smaller victory than a race win, but for a driver who spent a year and a half trying to outrun the memory of two races in 2025, it could be the more meaningful one.
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