Liam Lawson admitted that Racing Bulls started the 2026 Formula 1 season without knowing what their true level of competitiveness would be. The team, however, reached the summer break in fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship after a first half above internal expectations.
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After 11 rounds, Lawson is in ninth place among the drivers, with 43 points, while Racing Bulls has 66. The New Zealander finished eight races in the top ten and achieved sixth place in the Monaco and British GPs, results that highlighted the evolution of the VCARB 03.
“Honestly, at the beginning of the year we didn’t have a clear idea. The situation was very open and we didn’t know how strong we would be,” Lawson told the official F1 website. The driver acknowledged that the initial behavior of the car also did not inspire confidence about the rest of the campaign.
“The car was difficult at the start of the year, so I definitely wasn’t confident about how the season would develop. My focus was to understand the new regulations well and figure out how to get the most out of it,” he explained. “Then we quickly found a lot of performance in the car, and that has been working very well.”
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The debut in Australia offered few positive signs for Lawson, who finished 13th, although Arvid Lindblad scored points in his first Formula 1 race. The scenario changed already in the next round, in Shanghai, where the New Zealander was seventh in both the Sprint and the GP and accumulated eight points over the weekend.
For Lawson, the performance in China established an important direction for the car’s development and the team’s confidence. “It was very important. We found a good path quite early, and everything we have developed and produced since then has worked very, very well,” he highlighted.
The driver also related the results to the motivation inside the Faenza factory. “Obviously, everyone likes to achieve good results. I think that keeps the team’s motivation very high,” he concluded.
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