Marko casts crucial Liam Lawson verdict after Racing Bulls return

Three Grands Prix have passed since the controversial swap that saw Liam Lawson dropped back to Racing Bulls, with Yuki Tsunoda promoted to Red Bull Racing proper.

In a recent column, Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko has offered his view of Lawson, as well as how he’s stacked up against new rookie teammate Isack Hadjar.

Helmut Marko delivers Liam Lawson verdict

The F1 2025 season kicked off with a tumultuous driver swap in the Red Bull camp.

Up at the top of the grid, Liam Lawson struggled to get accustomed to the notoriously challenging RB21. After being knocked out in Q1 during both Australia and China and failing to score any points, Red Bull made the call to promote Yuki Tsunoda from Racing Bulls and return Lawson to the junior team.

Christian Horner stated that the ultimate goal of the swap was to pair someone up with Max Verstappen who could contribute to car development; Tsunoda, with five years of F1 experience, would be a better fit for that process than Lawson.

While the swap hasn’t necessarily instantly paid dividends — Tsunoda has only nabbed one points-scoring finish, with Lawson topping out with a best finish of 12th — both drivers have expressed a growing confidence.

Writing in his Speedweek column, Helmut Marko turned his attention to the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar to offer his perspective of the young team.

“Returning driver Liam Lawson is doing well,” Marko wrote.

“In Jeddah, he was a touch faster than Isack Hadjar, and in the race they were more or less on par. The New Zealander has settled in.”

But Marko also had praise for Hadjar, who has quickly settled into the team.

“In my opinion, Hadjar is the revelation of this first phase of the World Championship,” Marko wrote.

“The young Parisian didn’t know most of the circuits, but was always fast right from the start and made few mistakes, apart from the mistake in Australia.

“Isack achieves in the races what many Formula 1 rookies struggle with – he consistently posts good lap times while managing his tires very well. He delivers all of this relatively calmly.”

That’s strong praise, in large part because it highlights how significantly Hadjar has addressed one of his biggest weaknesses heading into Formula 1: His temper.

In Formula 2, Hadjar was quick to hit the radio button to lash out when things didn’t go his way. But since making the transition to the big leagues, the driver has made significant progress in reigning his anger in and responding to setbacks with a more restrained attitude.