Liam Lawson has more chances to impress before Red Bull decide on 2026 line-up. Photo: JAKUB PORZYCKI / AFP
Red Bull have delayed their decision on New Zealand driver Liam Lawson's future.
The delay allows them more races to assess who will drive the Red Bull and Racing Bulls cars next year - and also to focus on Max Verstappen's Formula 1 championship bid.
Red Bull bosses signalled last month a decision on their 2026 line-ups would be made after the Mexico Grand Prix, which was won by McLaren's Lando Norris on Monday.
But both team principal Laurent Mekies and motorsport adviser Helmut Marko have since said in various interviews that a decision is being delayed, with the indication that it will be made just before the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December.
It's been widely speculated that Isack Hadjar will be promoted from Racing Bulls to join Verstappen in the Red Bull cars, leaving Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, and rookie Arvid Lindblad as the choices for the two Racing Bulls cars.
That situation could change though, and Mekies commented that Tsunoda, who was promoted to the Red Bull team at Lawson's expense after just two grands prix this season, had "his best weekend in a long time'' in Mexico.
Although Tsunoda finished 11th, his team had been impressed by his efforts in qualifying and he was only denied a top-10 finish in the main race by a pitstop problem.
"We want to take a bit more time before we make a decision on the drivers. Yuki is making steps forward, and the other kids are making steps forward as well," Mekies told motorsport.com.
"For the decision, we accept that everyone would like us to decide soon. But we are not in a rush. We will take all the time we need," Mekies said. "And we will give these guys as many chances as they can have to demonstrate on track who are the best drivers."
Lawson was in the wars in Mexico, having to retire in the sixth lap because of damage inflicted on his car in a first lap collision with Williams driver Carlos Sainz.
The delay, however, gives Lawson more opportunities to advance his case to his bosses, starting with the Brazil Grand Prix on 10 November. The remaining races after that are Las Vegas (23 November), Qatar (1 December) and Abu Dhabi (8 December).
He is 15th on the championship table, two places and two points ahead of Tsunoda, while Hadjar is in 10th place.
The other reason given for the delay is Verstappen's late challenge to McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for championship honours. Norris leads by one point from Piastri, with 35 points back to Verstappen, who roared into contention with his win the US Grand Prix, a week before finishing third in Mexico City.
F1 investigates Lawson incident
Meanwhile, governing body FIA says it is inquiring further into the incident in which Lawson narrowly avoided running over two marshals, as he drove out of the pits in the Mexico driver.
The two men were on the track clearing debris after a crash, unaware the New Zealander was accelerating out of the pit lane.
Liam Lawson in his Racing Bulls VCARB02 during the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix, 26 October, 2025 Photo: AFP
Lawson was clearly rattled, judging by an exchange with a Racing Bulls engineer on their team radio immediately after the incident.
"Oh my god, are you kidding me," Lawson said. "Did you see that? I could have f...ing killed him mate."
The FIA said race control carried out all procedures with the safety of the marshals in mind. It said the call to marshals to abort the clean-up was made before Lawson entered that area of track.
"Following a Turn 1 incident, Race Control was informed that debris was present on the track at the apex of that corner," the FIA said in a statement.
"On lap 3, Marshals were alerted and placed on standby to enter the track and recover the debris once all cars had passed Turn 1.
"As soon as it became apparent that Lawson had pitted, the instructions to dispatch marshals were rescinded, and a double yellow flag was shown in that area.
"We are still investigating what occurred after that point."
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