Juan Pablo Montoya Urges Red Bull to Trust Liam Lawson for Madrid GP

Juan Pablo Montoya has urged Red Bull to resist the temptation of a quick fix and keep faith with Liam Lawson for the first-ever Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid, warning that rushing Isack Hadjar back from injury would be a needless gamble.

Lawson was thrown into the deep end at Zandvoort. A late call-up, a damaged wrist for Hadjar over the summer break, and barely a single practice session to get his bearings. It had all the makings of a damage-limitation weekend.

Instead, the New Zealander turned it into an audition.

He ran Max Verstappen remarkably close in qualifying and then converted that speed into a calm, controlled drive to seventh place and six valuable points. No drama, no wild lunges, just a tidy, composed performance that instantly strengthened his case inside the Red Bull system.

This weekend at Monza, Lawson stays in the car again. Montoya believes the decision should not stop there.

Speaking on F1 TV’s Weekend Warm-Up, the former F1 race winner highlighted not only Lawson’s impact but also the statement made by Yuki Tsunoda, who shifted into Lawson’s Racing Bulls seat alongside Arvid Lindblad.

“Yuki showed the pace he had in the race, passing people, the aggression. I think everything that you wanted to see out of a driver. If you're looking for drivers in F1, he delivered. He did the job. He didn't make mistakes. He didn't put a wheel wrong, and it was really good to see,” Montoya said, underlining just how sharp the Red Bull talent pool looked under pressure.

The focus then swung back to Lawson and the looming unknown of Madrid.

“With Liam, if I were Red Bull, especially going into Madrid next week, I would go, ‘Hey, let's be smart. We're going to get a couple more weeks of recovery, and we'll prepare Liam properly for Madrid because it's a new track for everybody.’”

That is the crux of Montoya’s argument. Madring is new ground for the entire grid, a fresh circuit on the calendar where nobody walks in with a decade of data and muscle memory. Experience matters, but so does rhythm, and right now Lawson has it. Hadjar, eighth in the standings on 68 points, is recovering. Lawson, ninth on 49, is building momentum. Verstappen, on 112 points in sixth, is still chasing the leaders, with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli setting the pace out front on a commanding 242.

Red Bull’s choice, then, is not just about loyalty to a rising star nursing a wrist injury. It is about reading the moment correctly. Lawson is match-fit, sharp from back-to-back race weekends, and already proven capable of operating near Verstappen’s level over a single lap when dropped into chaos at short notice.

Madrid, from 11–13 September, will test everyone. No historical setup sheets. No banked knowledge from years of racing. Just raw adaptation at the new Madring circuit.

Montoya’s message is clear: give Lawson the car, give Hadjar the time, and let a new track reveal who really belongs at the sharp end of Red Bull’s future.