Coming in at 17th in Pit Debrief’s Driver Rankings for the 2025 F1 Season is Liam Lawson. In his first full year in the sport, the Kiwi was thrust headfirst into the Red Bull second-seat phenomenon – unforgiving and famously unkind to those not named Max Verstappen. Lawson’s season seemed defined by extremes. There were real highs, most notably securing a seat for 2026. But there were also lows that arrived early, abruptly, and publicly. To understand his year, it makes sense to begin with the most brutal chapter. Which also happens to be the first.
The Red Bull chapter: Brief and brutal
Lawson’s promotion to the senior team was headline worthy from the instant it was announced. He replaced Sergio Perez, who will return to the grid in 2026 with Cadillac, and was placed alongside four-time world champion Max Verstappen. Although 2025 marked Lawson’s first full season, his 11 prior Grand Prix starts meant he entered the year without the cushion typically afforded to rookies.
Melbourne was a less than ideal introduction to life in navy and red for Lawson, with Shanghai following form. In Australia, limited running and unforeseen worsening conditions left Lawson exposed on slick tyres as rain fell. His fate was sealed. His race ended in the barriers.
Meanwhile, China also offered little relief. The Sprint format restricted learning time at a new circuit, and qualifying at the back of the field painted a stark picture. Even a 12th-place finish – upgraded after post-race disqualifications for the two Ferrari cars – could not change Red Bull’s decision.
Lawson was out.
Or, more professionally put, demoted.
The Racing Bulls reset
On one level, there is the demotion itself. On another, we have a complete dynamic shift in environment and expectation. How do you recalibrate after being Max Verstappen’s teammate? How do you go from the most infamous seat in Formula One to lining up alongside a rookie?
Yet, while the move carried obvious weight, it also provided something the RB21 never did: stability. The wider operating window offered the perfect opportunity for Lawson to rebuild.
However, the early results did not immediately reflect this expectation.
His first race back brought a breakthrough into Q2 for the first time in 2025 – but Sundays remained complicated. Strategy gambles, penalties, and track position on circuits where overtaking proved difficult repeatedly capped his results. Still, the trajectory was beginning to shift.
Monaco: A turning point
Monaco marked the first genuine turning point of Lawson’s season. He reached Q3 for the first time in 2025 and executed a flawless, pre-planned strategy to support teammate Isack Hadjar under the mandated two-stop format. Crucially, he delivered what the team needed, supporting Hadjar while also extracting the maximum from his own race. The strategy in turn also saw Liam Lawson gain his career-best finish at the time with eighth.
He was beginning to look settled. Composed.
Defence as a language
Austria raised the ceiling once again. Qualifying sixth – ahead of all Red Bull affiliated drivers – Lawson delivered one of his best drives of the season. He demonstrated superb tyre management to make a one-stop strategy work as he kept Fernando Alonso in his mirrors for 66 laps. For the second time during the 2025 F1 season, Liam Lawson achieved a new career best in sixth. This finish felt more rounded than that in Monaco.
Interlagos told a similar story. One stop. Long tyre stints. Even brief contact with Hadjar at the beginning of the final lap could not deter him from that 7th place finish. Once again, Lawson showcased his ability to manage races.
Red Flags in Baku and a second row start
Azerbaijan marked the clearest expression yet of Liam Lawson as a fully formed Formula One driver.
The weekend started on a high with Lawson qualifying third on the grid and ahead of teammate Isack Hadjar in eighth. In a qualifying session shaped by relentless interruptions and a record breaking six red flag stoppages, Lawson delivered one of – if not the best – performances of his Formula One career.
Race day brought inevitable challenges. An obvious pace disadvantage saw both Mercedes cars move ahead, but behind Lawson sat a formidable group: Hamilton and Leclerc in the Ferraris, Tsunoda in the Red Bull, and Lando Norris’ McLaren.
As the laps remaining ticked down from 10, Lawson continued to defend his position. When the chequered flag fell, he crossed the line in fifth, bettering his career-best finish for the third time in 2025. It was a defining weekend.
The season’s disruptions
Throughout the season Lawson demonstrated a consistent ability to manage tyres, read races, and a willingness to act in the team’s interest. He held Verstappen off in Hungary. He kept Alonso behind in Austria. His defensive driving became a recurring strength.
Yet, for all of the highs, Liam Lawson’s 2025 season was riddled with interruption. Several his own fault. Others less so. But they were there. Five DNFs told part of the story. Six penalty points told another. Practice sessions were cut short by mistakes. Some incidents were self-inflicted. Others more circumstantial. Sometimes it was contact. Sometimes it was strategy. It was a culmination of things that seemed to stop the momentum from catching.
Not a smooth season at all.
Head-to-head with Hadjar: The numbers
Viewed through a statistical lens, Lawson’s season loses ground to Isack Hadjar. Significantly. The numbers are clear, and they matter.
Across the 2025 season, Hadjar finished ahead on points, race results, and qualifying. He ended the year with 51 points to Lawson’s 38, and held the advantage in race finishes, winning the head-to-head 11-7.
Qualifying is where the contrast became most visible. Hadjar held a commanding 21-6 advantage in the qualifying head-to-head. He was consistently extracting more from the VCARB 02 on Saturdays while Lawson struggled.
The margin was not just frequent, but meaningful. The median gap across their qualifying battles saw the rookie ahead by 0.206 seconds – enough to define both grid position and strategy options in such a tightly packed field. Furthermore, these numbers do little to help Lawson in the F1 driver rankings here on Pit Debrief.
Looking to the future
Liam Lawson will partner Arvid Lindblad in 2026. Another rookie teammate while Isack Hadjar takes his turn in the second Red Bull Racing seat. 2025 brought a lot for Lawson, though it was not a simple success story or a complete failure.
It was a season shaped by instability and resilience.
Perhaps it may be remembered as proof.
Proof that he could survive Red Bull’s harshest environment. Proof that demotion did not dismantle him.
From one of the most brutal Red Bull dismissals at the beginning of the season to career-best performances in Austria and Azerbaijan, Lawson demonstrated that when given the tools and time, he belongs in Formula One. A place he will undoubtedly want to keep.
This is why Liam Lawson comes in at 17th in Pit Debrief’s Driver Rankings for the 2025 F1 Season.
