Is Lawson to thank for Verstappen's return to form? One expert thinks so

A Formula One expert has suggested Liam Lawson’s three-week stint with Red Bull Racing could be the reason behind Max Verstappen’s sudden return to form in which the Dutchman has won back-to-back grands prix. 

Four-time championship winner Verstappen completed a perfect weekend in Singapore by taking out the sprint race and the grand prix on Monday morning to move to fifth on the drivers’ standings after early season struggles. 

Lawson has also found form for Racing Bulls and leads the “best of the rest” drivers by a decent 25-point margin after leaving Singapore with 10 points, fifth in the sprint and seventh in the main race. 

The Kiwi driver stepped into the Red Bull car in the Netherlands in August after Verstappen’s teammate Isack Hadjar fractured his wrist. Lawson ended up racing for Red Bull across three race weekends (Netherlands, Italy and Spain) before Hadjar returned in Azerbaijan at the end of September. 

Writing in a column for the Telegraph, former Jordan and Jaguar F1 technical director Gary Anderson looked at how Verstappen has turned his season around after early labelling the Red Bull car as “undriveable” and “a horror show”. 

Anderson said tinkling with a new power unit has been a major part of Verstappen’s improvement but also suggested Lawson may have offered more insight to the team during his Red Bull stint. 

“Another theory I have is that the arrival of Liam Lawson at the team for three races when he replaced Isack Hadjar has aided them. Lawson is showing himself to be a strong driver and he has knowledge of the Racing Bulls car, which is generally more benign and driver-friendly. Those words do not describe the characteristics of the RB22 earlier this year,” Anderson wrote. 

Liam Lawson leads Arvid Lindblad and Oscar Piastri at Formula One's Spanish Grand Prix. Photo / Red Bull 

“Lawson’s presence may well have helped hone the set-up and move the car into a better operating window for Verstappen to get more from it. Verstappen has shown he is able to win with a problematic machine and perhaps just dialling out some of the bigger problems has given him the chance to win again. 

“The improvement on the Red Bull will be a circle of events and not just one thing, though. As I have said before with these new cars, finding performance is about piecing together the jigsaw. Maybe Lawson coming in allowed them to find the missing pieces.” 

A decision on Lawson’s future at Racing Bulls, meanwhile, is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, with the team considering Formula Two driver Nikola Tsolov. 

Speaking to media after the weekend’s only practice session in Singapore, team boss Alan Permane indicated a decision would be made, if not announced, “in the coming weeks”. 

“We’re not in a rush,” he said. “I think everyone knows we’ve got two fantastic drivers, we’ve got a fantastic driver in F2 at the moment,” he said. “They’re all there and ready to go at the moment, but three doesn’t fit into two, of course. 

“We’re going to take a little bit more time and make sure we get the right pairing for next year.”