Liam Lawson addresses F1 exit rumours as Nikola Tsolov pressure grows

Liam Lawson claimed not to have been thinking about his Formula 1 future at the British Grand Prix, despite Red Bull Junior Nikola Tsolov hitting a record-breaking high in Formula 2 and being linked with the New Zealander's seat. 

Recent media speculation suggested that Lawson could be on his way out of the Red Bull F1 setup, with junior driver Tsolov having been 'guaranteed' a seat for 2027.

However, Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane was quick to bat away this notion, telling Sky Sports F1, "They're just rumours. Honestly, we haven't even discussed it. Not at all." He did, however, confirm that F1 championship leader Tsolov is on his radar.

"It's honestly not even something I've really thought about," Lawson told media, including Crash.net. "Obviously, the summer break is normally a time when things are heavily considered, and I think we have a few more races until then.

“So at the moment, I'm just focused on continuing to do what we've been doing. 

“It's been obviously working very well recently, and it'd be nice to go into that summer break with another good couple of races.

“But I think with Formula One, I've I haven't been here that long, but I've been here long enough to see how things get stirred up, and it's not really something I've been thinking about.”

Bulgarian teenager Tsolov completed a rare clean sweep at Silverstone, making him the first driver to achieve this since Zane Maloney achieved the feat at the 2024 Bahrain round. Since the championship was introduced, Felipe Drugovich (Spain, 2022) and Ollie Bearman (Baku 2023), are the only other drivers to win both races across a weekend. 

But added to his feature race win in Austria, Tsolov is the first driver in F2 to hit three wins on the bounce. When the championship was branded as GP2, Davide Valsecchi hit this marker in 2012. 

Considering his journey to F1, which included a spell in Japanese Super Formula, and whether the top tier has matched his childhood expectations, Lawson added: “It's something that, obviously, for us, we start focusing on and looking at and dreaming about when you're a kid. Like anything in life, you put something on a pedestal and you look forward towards it, and you have ideas of what it's going to be like, and very rarely is it exactly what you think it's going to be like. 

"So in a lot of ways, there are a lot of things that have come with it.

“I think the sport's also changed a lot since I was a kid watching it, but at the same time, obviously, it's an incredible position to be in, and it's something that was my dream when I was very, very young, so I look back and think about what I would tell my obviously younger self and he would be pretty stoked [that I’m here]

“It's easy to get lost in all the things that we're doing every weekend. You get focused on always the next thing. You have a good result, and you're straightaway focused on the next one, so it's important to remind yourself how cool it is, but I know I'm very lucky to be here.”