Why Liam Lawson did ‘not hear much’ from Marko after career-high P5

Liam Lawson says he didn’t hear much from Helmut Marko after his career-best fifth at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but he wasn’t surprised as the Red Bull advisor usually calls after “bad” races.

Lawson is facing an uncertain future in Formula 1 as the New Zealander has yet to secure a contract for next season, whether that’s with Red Bull or Racing Bulls.

Liam Lawson secured a timely career-high fifth in Baku

This season, he started at Red Bull only to be dropped after two race weekends after failing to make it out of Q1 on three attempts, demoted to Racing Bulls.

But as Red Bull chiefs debate their teams’ F1 2026 line-ups, the only certainty is that Max Verstappen will spearhead Red Bull’s charge. His teammate, although expected to be Isack Hadjar, has yet to be confirmed, similarly the two Racing Bulls seats.

And there’s growing competition for those two seats.

It is being widely speculated that F2 star Arvid Lindblad will take one of the Racing Bulls seat while Lawson and current Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda are in competition to partner him. However, Irish racer Alex Dunne has also emerged as a candidate after he parted ways with the McLaren Driver Development Programme.

Lawson boosted his chances of staying when he qualified third for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and held off Tsunoda in the Red Bull to finish fifth. His 10 points elevated Racing Bulls to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, ahead of Aston Martin.

There were no phone calls of praise and congratulations from Marko, but Lawson wasn’t expecting it.

The brutal world of Formula 1:

👉 All the mid-season driver swaps Red Bull have made in their F1 history

👉 Revealed: The shortest F1 careers this century in the brutal world of Formula 1

“Normally the phone calls are after the bad ones, so I haven’t heard much,” the 23-year-old said with a laugh.

“It’s clear for all of us. We’ve obviously done this a long time and we’re well aware that we need to have good performances to stay in the sport.

“That’s honestly what I’m focused on at the moment. Baku was great, but obviously we need more of that going through the next few races.”

A few more races is what Lawson and the other Red Bull hopefuls have with Marko revealing he wants an idea of his 2026 lineup after Mexico, but is happy to wait until the end of the year if need be.

“We want to have a guideline in place after Mexico,” he told RTL last month. “The end of the year is the very last date for us.

“We want to see how Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson perform so we can make the right decisions for next year.”

Although Lawson would like a decision sooner than the later, he accepts this is part of being a Formula 1 race driver.

“I’d love to know tomorrow, honestly,” he said. “But obviously in this camp it’s very normal to be left on hold a little bit, and that’s how it is at the moment.

“I know the only thing that has control over that is my performance in the car, so until I have that answer I think that’s just what I’m focused on.

“Unless you’re on multi-year contracts – and even then I think Formula 1 contracts, any contracts at the end of the day, can be made to be broken.

“So the only time you’re secure is when you’re performing. I don’t think there’s many drivers apart from some of the top guys that are going to feel completely secure.

“But it’s not really a new feeling in any way, it’s something that we are very used to, it’s something that we are especially in the Red Bull programme.

“We’re introduced at a very young age knowing that the only way you step up through the ladder is by performing and you have that pressure all the time, so it’s on a bigger scale but it’s the same thing.”

Read next: Kravitz’s boycott-ending Verstappen chat after 2021 Hamilton ‘robbed’ comment