Who slept best last night: Liam Lawson

Jolyon Palmer wasn’t trying to be creative when he asked Liam Lawson about his future during F1 TV’s live post-race coverage. It was simply a question anyone would ask – perhaps even Lawson himself. The sort of question you ask without really expecting an answer, more out of wonderment as to why the answer isn’t already an obvious yes.

“Another race, another win, in the race that you were in, really, the midfield battle,” the former Renault driver and now one of F1’s top analysts put to Lawson after a couple of questions from his colleagues. And then added: “When are you going to be announced for next year?”

There shouldn’t really be any questions about whether Lawson deserves to stay in F1, and with his current team. Any team on its way to securing the best result in its F1 history would surely have already tied down the driver responsible for the biggest share of its points. Any such team wouldn’t want him to become impatient or feel insecure.

No one would be talking about Liam Lawson’s future had he been racing for almost any other team and the only reason for a potential delay would probably be his management demanding better terms for their client. Were Lawson delivering these performances for another outfit, he’d probably be asking for more money, less social media time and no more easyJet flights.

But that’s not the case. Because he is indeed racing for Racing Bulls. And he is a Red Bull driver. And nothing is ever straightforward when you are.

“I’ve no idea, man,” Lawson laughed in response. “Honestly, at the moment, it’s to a point where I’m not even really thinking about it. I’m just pressing on and enjoying the races, honestly.”

And there’s no reason to think Lawson is actually stressing about his unsettled future. He’s been in this position long enough to stop wondering about the same questions outside observers are constantly asking about Red Bull’s driver decisions.

Those on the outside, back in the winter of 2024, could have asked: why on earth does a guy with just 11 F1 starts get promoted? Or, a few months later: how the hell do you give the guy just two races – and then sack him? Or now: what else does this guy need to do to secure his seat for next season?

But for Lawson, it’s probably just the norm. There’s no reason to stress about it – whatever happens, happens. So he’s just pressing on and enjoying the races, really. And it’s going bloody well.

There’s not much to tell about his race in Austin. Just like Kimi Antonelli’s – what do you actually explain about the Italian’s victory in Texas? There’s really not a lot: perfectly executed, brilliantly delivered, controlled. You can think of another couple of adjectives – but there won’t be much substance to attach them to. There wasn’t much drama. He seemingly cruised to victory.

And Lawson did pretty much the same in the midfield.

He had a good qualifying session, reaching Q3 once again, and accepted the team’s request not to go out in the final segment to help his team-mate, who had a grid penalty. But he was still ninth on the grid – effectively a midfield pole in modern F1.

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls, Pierre Gasly, Alpine, Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Logan Riely / Getty Images

A very clean start followed. He kept Pierre Gasly behind going up the hill into Turn 1, then slotted in right behind the McLarens. He built a gap, made his pitstop and delivered a perfectly managed stint to the finish on hard tyres. No drama. No stress. Just execution.

“For us, it’s been a very strong race, and a strong weekend,” he told the media after the finish. “Executed well, so very very happy. And obviously going to the next few races, some interesting tracks. But the car has been working well, so it should hopefully work well there too.”

He’d had a lot more stress on Thursday, performing his first proper live concert with his friends in Austin.

“I mean, today was like 10% of that,” he joked in his conversation with Palmer and his colleagues.

Ninth was the best he could have achieved, with no retirements among F1’s leading four teams. That’s another midfield win for Lawson, who also comfortably leads the unofficial midfield championship this year.

Yes, sure, he had a couple of races with Red Bull, but who’s to say he’d have scored significantly fewer points had he raced for Racing Bulls instead? Maybe a couple. Anyway, his ‘championship lead’ over Pierre Gasly is now 35 points – which is huge – and he looks likely to remain ninth in the standings until the end of the year.

There’s no official title for being ‘best of the rest’, but it’s usually a description of a very strong season.

Back in the day, when the Faenza team was still called Toro Rosso and run by a calm and quiet Austrian named Franz Tost, its goal almost every single year was to finish fifth in the constructors’ championship. Tost declared it as a target almost routinely in his media appearances ahead of each new season – but the team never quite got there under his leadership.

This year could finally be the year!

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

Photo by: Jayce Illman / Getty Images

The former Toro Rosso squad is now the only midfield team with more than 100 points, and Alpine doesn’t look particularly close anymore. Especially when you consider just how quick and handy these Racing Bulls cars have become; and it’s Lawson who’s making most of the difference for Tost’s former team.

So… why is he still not signed for next year?

It could be that it’s just a formality, and Racing Bulls simply needs to finalise its 2027 plans for Nikola Tsolov before announcing Lawson’s extension. But with Red Bull, you just never know. Part of the team’s identity is to find the next Sebastian Vettel or Max Verstappen, and that sometimes means promoting juniors at the expense of established drivers.

It’s happened many times in the past, and it will probably happen again. But if Lawson is shown the door after the year he’s had, it would be one of the cruellest decisions in Red Bull’s history of handling drivers.

There’s absolutely no reason to rush Tsolov either. Yes, he’s one of the main title contenders in F2, but it’s not as though Red Bull desperately needs another superstar junior right now. With Max Verstappen’s contract extended and Isack Hadjar doing exactly what he should be doing, there’s no need to add more pressure to the system.

There’s Arvid Lindblad, after all, whose potential still needs to be confirmed in his second year – and there’s no better measuring stick than Lawson in his current form.

There’s only one logical decision, really.

But with Red Bull, you just never know, right?

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– The Motorsport.com Team

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com