Has Lawson’s Racing Bulls F1 return been as bad as it seems?

“Pretty shocking.” That’s how Liam Lawson assesses his results, four grands prix into his newest stint as a Racing Bulls driver, following his demotion from Red Bull.

“We have no points,” Lawson said matter-of-factly after another forgettable race in Miami. “Obviously Formula 1 is a lot of variables and to put a full race together could be quite tough. The speed’s been there for most of it, just unfortunately it hasn’t worked out for us so far.”

Clearly, public opinion considers Isack Hadjar to be the most impressive of the Racing Bulls drivers in 2025. The French rookie has consistently fought for points so far, and he has outqualified Lawson 4-1 (sprint qualifying included) – but the New Zealander was twice hindered by technical issues, with his DRS and battery causing problems in Bahrain and Miami respectively.

Statistics can be turned around depending on the point of view, and one could argue that over the two regular (i.e. non-sprint) qualifying sessions where Lawson was trouble-free, he actually has a 0.048s advantage on Hadjar.

Still, this is a problem. Hadjar’s average grid position (for grand prix races) is 11, while Lawson’s is 14.5. This significantly hinders his chances to score points on Sundays.

The uneventful Japanese Grand Prix was tough for Lawson, who dropped from 13th to 14th at the start and eventually took the checkered flag in 17th – undercut by Jack Doohan and Nico Hulkenberg, and overtaken by Carlos Sainz. Meanwhile, Hadjar achieved a brilliant eighth-place finish.

Pace was better in Bahrain, but Lawson picked up two penalties for contact with Lance Stroll and Hulkenberg, which dropped him from a potential 13th position – right ahead of Hadjar – to 16th.

Come Saudi, Lawson led Hadjar on the grid for the first time, but lost out in the chaos of the first lap; he had a few overtakes to make for his medium/hard strategy to work, but a 10-second penalty for overtaking Jack Doohan off the track at Turn 2 dropped him from 11th to 12th, while Hadjar scored a point.

Finally, in Miami, a racing incident – with Doohan again – at the start saw Lawson spin, damaging his Racing Bulls and his chances of scoring points, with the New Zealander describing his crippled car as “pretty horrendous”.

Lawson was jaded after another tough race, but the picture arguably looks worse than his actual performance has been; while there is little representative data to consider so far, everything seems to point to a relatively balanced performance level compared to Hadjar.

“Comfort-wise I feel really good in the car,” Lawson assessed. “Speed’s been pretty good most places, just unfortunately no results to show for it.”

So what’s the way forward? “Reset, like always. That’s how we have to be in the sport. Keep working forward, keep improving things.

“I don’t think anything really changes. I think our approach to the weekend’s been really, really good. As I said, the car was fast this weekend, so it’ll click eventually.”

All Lawson needs may be to stay away from collisions and penalties.