One F1 driver secures best-ever result as his former team endure a nightmare

Liam Lawson has admitted that the absence of strong results had been “in the back of my mind” before he delivered a breakthrough sixth-place finish in the Austrian Grand Prix.

The Kiwi produced a standout performance in qualifying to line up on the third row of the grid, and followed that up with a well-executed one-stop strategy to secure his best-ever finish in Formula 1.

Despite dropping to ninth on the opening lap after getting caught up in a clash between Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli, Lawson recovered strongly to finish as the top scorer across both Red Bull teams.

The result comes after a challenging 2025 campaign for Lawson, who was dropped by Red Bull after just two races due to underwhelming performances. Even returning to Racing Bulls and getting behind the wheel of a more driver-friendly VCAR02 didn’t mark the end of his troubles, and he was regularly outgunned by rookie teammate Isack Hadjar in early races.

But at Red Bull’s home track in Spielberg, Lawson looked assured throughout the weekend and finally delivered on the promise he had shown in flashes earlier in the year.

Liam Lawson delivers at F1 Austrian Grand Prix

“It’s nice to have a result, obviously,” said Lawson. “We’re all focused and we spend a lot of time working on our heads and putting ourselves in the right mindset, and obviously in the back of my mind I knew all year that I had no big result really at all, so it’s nice to have that.

“But at the same time, it’s one good weekend — we need to keep doing this going forward.”

He added: “It’s been an incredibly tough year, with a lot of potential. I came into F1 and even last year had a few races, and most of them converted very well [in terms of result].

“Sometimes you can have all the confidence and speed in the world and they don’t convert — and it felt like that this year. So to finally have a result is amazing, but we need to keep this up.”

Austria marked only the second points finish of the season for Lawson following an eighth place in Monaco last month. He felt the pace had been there in several recent rounds, but various factors had prevented him from converting that speed into top-10 results.

“In Canada, we had really good speed in practice. Barcelona had good speed. Monaco as well — and the result didn’t convert.

“We’ve been pushing a lot with the car and especially on our side of the garage. They’ve done a lot of work to make me comfortable.

“We made some changes this weekend and they’ve worked really, really well. We need to obviously keep pushing.

“But it’s sometimes like that in Formula 1. Sometimes the speed and everything can be there, but there are a lot of variables in this sport — and it worked for us this weekend.”