Our verdict on Lawson earning a 2027 F1 extension

Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad will continue to race for Racing Bulls in 2027, with Red Bull electing against what would have been a huge Formula 1 driver sacking.

Here's what our team makes of the move to keep Lawson and Lindblad and not promote Formula 2 title contender Nikola Tsolov into a race seat.

An existential question has been answered

Jon Noble

Very few driver decisions have felt as right as Lawson getting a fresh contract with Racing Bulls.

He has been superb this year. Yes, there are still some rough edges to smooth out, but he has been fast throughout, consistently strong, delivering technical input that his engineers have loved, and brilliantly able to shut out all the noise regarding the doubts over his future.

But there is a wider significance to Lawson getting a stay, and it's one I mentioned in Monday's From the Paddock newsletter. The Lawson decision was almost existential for Racing Bulls in telling us what that team is really about.

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Is it an outfit that, under Alan Permane, can stand on its own two feet, take its own decisions and plot a path that is only focused on making itself better?

Or is it simply a puppet for sister squad Red Bull, a testing ground and training school for its future drivers, even if that means some short-term pain in rushing rookies through?

After the season Lawson has had, it would have made no sense for Racing Bulls to drop him and throw away all the good momentum it has built up. So keeping him for now gives us the answer about what Racing Bulls is about.

Tsolov has a bright future in F1, but time is on his side to make that step up.

The best decision for all involved

Gary Anderson

Pretty sure this is the best decision for Racing Bulls and in the future for Red Bull.

Both Lawson and Lindblad - a rookie, let's not forget - have shown that they can bring home the results when everything goes as planned over a race weekend.

Both are capable of being a replacement for Isack Hadjar or Max Verstappen if either of them slip on a banana skin. Red Bull knows what Lawson can bring to them if required, so he is a good measure of what Lindblad could potentially bring too.

Having Tsolov in the background and doing a few FP1 sessions will prepare him for an introduction in 2028.

As far as I'm concerned, it's the correct decision for all involved. 

Credibility for Racing Bulls

Valentin Khorounzhiy

If Racing Bulls is to be at all seen as an F1 team in its own right, with its own ambitions and dreams and what have you, rather than a pure Red Bull talent farm, then yeah, Lawson pretty much had to be kept on.

Tsolov may end up faster down the line. For all we know, he may be faster already. But the kind of efficient scoring that Lawson has provided this year a rookie cannot match - I would say that's a rule in F1.

So Tsolov-for-Lawson would be nakedly sacrificing Racing Bulls's present for the senior Red Bull team's future, and every decision like that makes it less and less palatable for Red Bull to own two teams in F1.

Only if Racing Bulls has its own aspirations can it be allowed to continue, and a new deal for Lawson buys some credibility in my eyes.

Marko would have dropped Lawson long ago

Jack Benyon

At the height of his powers, Helmut Marko would have ditched Lawson ages ago.

Lawson had his shot at the top team, didn't make it, and will likely not be given that chance again.

Now Marko's no longer in charge, and this is the biggest indicator yet that Racing Bulls is not Toro Rosso; developing young drivers is no longer the only, or primary, end goal for this team.

You can't blame Red Bull. Instead of a team that cost and lost money to run like Toro Rosso, Racing Bulls is now a multi-billion dollar entity. Constructors' championship finishing position is not the only definition of value in an F1 business anymore.

Taking risks with a team built with the acceptance of losing money is one thing. Taking risks with a team worth billions is another.

None of this is to criticise the decision it has made, as Lawson is a worthy F1 driver. It's just to point out yet more evidence that Racing Bulls is acting and being run like its own team.

Lawson would be wise to find an exit route

Josh Suttill

Lawson is in a fantastic position now and has been one of the star drivers of the season, but he should already be thinking about exit routes for 2028.

Tsolov is going to be waiting in the wings next year, and there's no reason why Racing Bulls might be faced with the exact same 'three into two' dilemma for 2028.

This time Lawson was the overwhelmingly logical pick, next time he might not be and, given Red Bull leaves those decisions until late in the season, he doesn't want to suddenly be left without a seat for 2028.

So he'd be wise to try to follow the Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz playbook of finding another driver before Red Bull decides it's done with you.

Adds to an excellent redemption arc

Jack Cozens

I've got a lot of time for this career redemption arc.

Lawson at the Red Bull senior team always felt like an uncomfortable fit to me, right from when it was announced. I certainly hadn't seen anything to suggest he would solve the team's second-driver problem.

Red Bull's bungling of what followed didn't help, but that ill-fated, two-race spell could've marked the beginning of the end of Lawson's F1 career.

Instead, what's followed has revealed plenty about his mental resolve - because he's had to process a lot these past 20 months yet has been absolutely unflappable. 

Driving for the top teams is what every driver craves, but it doesn't have to be the be-all and end-all and, if you don't make it, it doesn't automatically consign you to career collapse.

Lawson's proved emphatically this year that he deserves a place in F1. This contract extension was therefore the only acceptable outcome.