Warned that he could be dropped mid-season if he doesn’t improve his results, Liam Lawson says that while it does look “pretty shocking”, the pace is there.

He just needs to put a full race weekend together to prove it, and that can be “quite tough”.

Could Liam Lawson be dropped from the F1 2025 grid?

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

Having begun the F1 2025 championship as a Red Bull Racing driver, Lawson was demoted to Racing Bulls after round two with Christian Horner calling it a “duty of care” to the New Zealander who appeared to be out of his depth at the senior team.

But even with the sister team, Lawson has struggled.

He has yet to score a point for Red Bull’s sister team, recording a best result of P12 in Saudi Arabia before retiring in Miami after a collision with Jack Doohan.

But while that crash signalled the end, at least for now, of Doohan’s Formula 1 career with Alpine announcing Franco Colapinto would be in the A525 for the next five races, Lawson continues as a Racing Bulls driver.

But questions are being asked about how much longer.

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Juan Pablo Montoya predicts a mid-season change with Lawson out and prodigy Arvid Lindblad lining up alongside Isack Hadjar.

“I’ll tell you the truth,” he told AS. “If Liam doesn’t improve any further, I wouldn’t be surprised if they put Lindblad in at some point. Not at all. I wouldn’t be a little surprised.

“Honestly, Liam has been given the green light last year and has proven that he has what it takes to do a good job. They gave him the Red Bull seat, and he won it.

“The Red Bull situation was complicated and I think it took a very strong blow to his liver, and he needs a lot of psychological treatment after that.”

“If he doesn’t recover soon,” he continued, “I’m sure Red Bull will start looking elsewhere because that’s how they work.”

But while Lawson admits his results with the Racing Bulls team have not been up to scratch, he is adamant there’s more in play than just his performance – he and the team need to put in a “full race together” before they can be judged.

Four races into his Racing Bulls’ return, Lawson admitted to the media, including PlanetF1.com: “Most of them have been pretty shocking.

“Comfort-wise, I feel really good in the car. The speed has been pretty good most places, just unfortunately, no results to show for it.

“We have no points. Obviously, Formula 1, there are a lot of variables in our sport, and putting a full race together can be quite tough.

“The speed has been there for most of it. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out for us so far.”

The New Zealander is hoping for a reset at Imola, the first European race in a run of nine, excluding Canada, in which all the teams are expected to introduce upgrades before focusing on F1 2026.

“Keep working forwards, keep improving things,” is Lawson’s mantra. “And I don’t think anything really changes.

“I think our approach to the weekend has been really, really good. As I said, the car was fast, so it’ll click eventually.”

But eventually may not be soon enough for Lawson with Ralf Schumacher saying all the rookies are doing better than the recently axed Doohan, all “except” Lawson that is.

Speaking about Doohan’s Alpine exit, the former F1 driver told Sky’s Backstage Boxengasse podcast: “As they often say, Formula 1 is not a bed of roses.

“In terms of the rookies, the others are doing better [than Doohan], except for Lawson it must be said.”

Six races into F1 2025, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli is winning the rookie battle on 48 points with Haas’ Oliver Bearman on six ahead of Hadjar on five.

Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto and Doohan have yet to score.

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