Liam Lawson's Promising Start at Monza Italian Grand Prix

Liam Lawson left the Monza paddock on Friday with more than just a tidy lap time on the board. He walked away with evidence that he belongs in this company.

Thrown back into Red Bull duty for a second straight weekend, the 24-year-old Kiwi opened his Italian Grand Prix with a sharp fourth place in FP1, clocking a 1m 23.433s. On a circuit that punishes hesitation, he looked anything but tentative.

The afternoon told a different story on the timing screens, but not in the garage. Red Bull switched his focus almost entirely to race preparation in FP2. Lawson ran a brief early push lap, then sank into two extended stints on soft and hard tyres, treating the session as a live laboratory rather than a qualifying dress rehearsal.

He ended FP2 in 12th with a 1m 23.660s. On paper, that’s a slide down the order. In context, it’s a marker of how close he already is: only 0.283s off teammate Max Verstappen, who finished ninth after his own programme of race work.

For Lawson, this is all still accelerated education. Called up at short notice to replace the injured Isack Hadjar at Zandvoort, he responded with an assured seventh-place finish in the Dutch Grand Prix. Yuki Tsunoda stepped into Lawson’s Racing Bulls seat that weekend, and the same stand-in arrangement remains in place at Monza, with Hadjar still sidelined by a wrist injury.

So this is not a gentle reintroduction. It’s a crash course at one of Formula 1’s most unforgiving venues.

Lawson described the day as “productive” and “good learning”, and the structure of his running backed that up. Red Bull handed him the sort of workload usually reserved for an established race driver: heavy fuel, mixed compounds, a focus on tyre behaviour and race balance rather than headline-grabbing laps.

He knows exactly where he wants to improve. Zandvoort exposed more strain in the race than in qualifying, and that lesson has travelled with him to Italy. The target now is simple: carry that one-lap confidence into a full Grand Prix distance.

Monza adds another layer. Around the old royal park, a tow is almost as valuable as horsepower. Friday underlined that reality again, with cars bunching up in the final sector, each hunting for a slipstream before their flying laps. Lawson made it clear that Red Bull will have to play that game smartly when it counts, with a clear plan for qualifying runs and track position.

While Lawson went about his work, the established heavyweights traded blows at the top of the timesheets. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc lit up FP1 with a 1m 23.000s, giving the Tifosi an early jolt of optimism. George Russell then lowered the benchmark in FP2, his Mercedes stopping the clock at 1m 22.559s.

Those numbers will dominate the headlines, but inside the Red Bull garage, the story is more nuanced. A reserve driver, drafted in through injury, now sits within three tenths of the reigning world champion after one day of preparation and a programme skewed towards long runs.

Qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix comes in the early hours of Sunday morning New Zealand time (2am NZT), with the race following at 1am NZT on Monday. By then, the tow strategies will be set, the run plans locked in, and the margin for error brutally small.

Lawson has his foothold. The next question is whether he can turn this “productive” Friday into something far more awkward for Red Bull’s decision-makers when they look at their future driver line-up.