Liam Lawson has praised his Racing Bulls team for the quality of its development work throughout the 2026 F1 season, describing it as the strongest he has seen from the team since his debut with them in 2023.
The Racing Bulls driver pointed to the team’s aerodynamic programme as central to the gains made across the campaign. He explained that upgrades brought to the car have consistently delivered on track, something he described as difficult to achieve in Formula 1.
Liam Lawson hails Racing Bulls’ development in F1 2026
Liam Lawson said the team’s upgrades have translated well from simulation to the track this season, a consistency he says is not always guaranteed given the gap that can exist between theoretical and real-world performance.
Having had a torrid weekend in Miami with a complete lack of pace, upgrades in Montréal and at Spa have transformed the 2026 package, with the Canadian one moving them from a solid midfield team to the very front of it quite quickly. They are 5th in the standings post-Hungary, overtaking Alpine.
“On the development side, by far the strongest [season since I joined].
“So far, I think everything we’ve been bringing has been working very, very well. And that’s something that is hard in Formula 1,” Lawson said in a print media session in Hungary. “Honestly, you have upgrades that are run through simulations, and theoretically they can be better, but they’re not always exactly what they seem.”
He added that the team has also become more effective at maximising its car set-up across race weekends as well, allowing it to start closer to its optimal window.
“So for us, it’s been very good. And I think we’ve got very strong at really maximising our packaging each weekend as well, starting a lot closer to our quality set-ups and having quite an aggressive car,” Lawson said. “But for us, it’s been good to drive.”
Lawson highlights factory progress amid F1 personnel changes
Lawson acknowledged that Formula 1 teams regularly see personnel arrive and depart through every season and in the winter, but he credited the group working behind the scenes at the Racing Bulls factory for the strength of the development programme this year.
“At the end of the day, in a Formula 1 team, there’s a lot of people coming in and obviously moving on,” Lawson said. “I don’t know, I think it’s just something that the team in the background, especially back at the factory, have done a very, very good job.”
He specified that car development has been the standout area of progress, supported by how the team has brilliantly used its wind tunnel allocation.
“It’s really the development side that has been very, very strong,” Lawson said. “So mostly the aero development stuff that’s been happening, the wind tunnel time that the team’s been using as well. I think all of that’s been maximised and just been better this year.”
The Kiwi explains how early gains have shaped Racing Bulls’ 2026 momentum
Lawson explained that getting new parts working correctly from the outset has allowed the team to build on progress rather than needing to backtrack, something he says has not been the case at Racing Bulls this year.
He noted that teams can sometimes introduce an upgrade that fails to perform as expected, forcing a return to earlier concepts before progress can resume, as seen many times in the ground effect era across the field.
“You see teams even develop something and you sort of lose, you bring something to a race and it doesn’t work like you think it does,” Lawson said. “You sort of have to go three steps back to almost find your way again. And I think that’s something that we haven’t had to do this year. Everything we’ve done has been working very well.”
The consistency of that development curve has coincided with a competitive run of results for Racing Bulls across the 2026 F1 season, with the team’s momentum expected to continue into the second half of the campaign as it looks to build on its position in the Constructors’ Championship, and Liam Lawson trying to finish P9 in the Drivers’.
