Liam Lawson’s Impressive Formula One Audition Against Max Verstappen

Liam Lawson’s audition for a full-time Formula One seat quietly gathered momentum over the weekend – and it did so against the toughest benchmark in the sport.

Dropped into Red Bull’s RB22 without prior running, the New Zealander had set himself a simple, brutal target: get within three-tenths of Max Verstappen. Ambitious, given the world champion’s habit of turning teammates into reference points rather than rivals.

Lawson didn’t just meet that mark. He smashed it.

Stopping the clocks just 0.115s shy of Verstappen, he delivered the kind of lap that makes people in the paddock sit up, flick through their notes, and re-check the timing screens. For a driver still effectively on trial, in unfamiliar machinery, that gap might be the most telling statistic of his entire weekend.

Yet his immediate future remains tied to someone else’s fitness.

There is still no firm word on Isack Hadjar’s condition ahead of Monza. The Frenchman, who missed Zandvoort, has been given as much time as possible to prove he is ready for the Italian Grand Prix. Multiple sources have indicated there are no guarantees either way. Red Bull and the wider operation are preparing for both outcomes.

One scenario, described as a worst-case contingency, underlines how finely balanced the situation is. Hadjar could start the weekend, take part in the opening practice session, and only then step aside for Lawson if he is deemed unfit to continue. Such a mid-event switch would need the green light from the FIA, motorsport’s governing body, and would add another layer of intrigue to a weekend that already feels loaded with subplots.

While the medical and administrative pieces shuffle into place, Lawson has been doing what drivers value most: mileage.

He climbed back into the RB22 at Mugello for a Pirelli tyre test, sharing duties with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri on the opening day. On paper, it was a research and development run for Pirelli, focused on gathering data for the tyre compounds earmarked for the 2027 Formula One season. For Lawson, it was something else entirely – a rare, extended chance to live inside a top car, to feel its limits, to understand its moods.

He made it count. Across the day, Lawson logged 116 laps of the demanding Tuscan circuit – the equivalent of two full race distances – before handing the Red Bull over to Racing Bulls reserve Ayumu Iwasa overnight. Every lap, every run, fed into a growing body of evidence that he is ready, if called, to step into a Grand Prix weekend without flinching.

The calendar will not wait. The Italian Grand Prix weekend opens on September 4 (NZT), with the race set for September 7. By then, Red Bull and Hadjar must decide: does the Frenchman return, or does the door swing open again for the Kiwi who has edged to within a tenth of Verstappen and refuses to go away quietly?