Red Bull impressed by Liam Lawson at Dutch GP: 'He did what he could'

Red Bull’s Formula 1 boss Laurent Mekies was impressed by its super-sub Liam Lawson after he maximised what was possible at the Dutch Grand Prix.

The 24-year-old finished seventh behind the top three teams – McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari – after starting eighth but gaining a place due to Max Verstappen’s crash in the sister RB22.

It came after a tougher sprint race where Lawson started and finished in 11th, on the weekend he temporarily moved from Racing Bulls to Red Bull due to Isack Hadjar’s wrist injury.

Mekies told Sky Sports: “It's so difficult nowadays to jump from a team to another, so I think Liam did what he could.

“He obviously did a very good job in qualifying yesterday being only a tenth away from Max, today was a bit of a race on his own.

“We are missing the reference from Max so, you know, no judgment on the pace but he took the points, he took the points of seventh place and that's probably the best he could have done today.”

Lawson’s result came despite him receiving a 10-second penalty for failing to slow down for a single yellow flag at Turn 3 on lap 55, after Esteban Ocon had stopped at the following corner.

The New Zealander confirmed he’ll “learn from that”, but considering he finished a lap ahead of eighth-placed Nico Hulkenberg, it made little difference to his race at Zandvoort on Sunday.

“Today was hard, honestly,” Lawson, who is ninth in the championship, told Sky Sports.

“The first lap was quite fun, but from then, honestly, we just struggled for pace to match the front guys.

“But I feel like after yesterday I knew it was going to be a hard race, we were both behind them and I feel like I did a pretty good lap yesterday, so I knew it was gonna be hard.

“Probably not that hard, like we really struggled to keep up with the front teams, but I'm sure there's stuff I can learn from. I'll obviously try and have an understanding after the weekend.”

Zandvoort was Lawson’s first race for Red Bull since his two disappointing outings at the start of 2025, and it is not yet clear if he will return to sister squad Racing Bulls for Monza up next. 

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