Liam Lawson to Race for Red Bull at Monza
Liam Lawson will get another shot in Red Bull colours at Monza, with the team confirming the New Zealander will again stand in for the injured Isack Hadjar at the Italian Grand Prix.
Lawson impressed on his return to the front-running outfit at Zandvoort, hustling the RB22 to seventh place and banking valuable points despite having only a handful of sessions to get up to speed. It was a calm, composed drive that underlined why Red Bull keep him so close to the programme – and why he was the obvious choice to step in again.
Hadjar, recovering from a wrist injury picked up over the summer break, remains sidelined as Red Bull opt for caution rather than risk a setback.
“Liam will drive alongside Max [Verstappen] at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, while Isack continues to make encouraging progress following the wrist injury sustained during the summer break,” the team said in a statement. “The team is closely monitoring his rehabilitation and will take no unnecessary risks with his return to competition and wishes him a speedy recovery.”
For Lawson, Monza offers something very different to Zandvoort’s tight, twisting challenge: the old cathedral of speed, long straights, brutal braking zones, and nowhere to hide if you misjudge the balance. He admitted after the Dutch weekend that the learning curve with the RB22 has been steep.
“It's been a good weekend,” he said after Zandvoort. “It was good to extract everything out of Quali. It's been tough to try and get my head around this car in a short space of time, but I've enjoyed it.”
Now he has another race distance to deepen that understanding, this time under the glare of the tifosi and at a circuit that punishes even minor errors.
Tsunoda gets second Racing Bulls outing
The reshuffle doesn’t stop at the senior team. Yuki Tsunoda will again take Lawson’s usual Racing Bulls seat for the Monza weekend, extending the Japanese driver’s return to the grid after losing his full-time place at the end of 2025.
“Yuki will drive for the team at the Italian GP this weekend,” Racing Bulls confirmed on social media, a simple line that carries plenty of weight for a driver determined to remind the paddock of his worth.
Tsunoda’s comeback at Zandvoort fell just short of the points in 11th, but the 26-year-old sounded energised by the chance to race again.
“I definitely enjoyed it overall, and yeah, I think I gave it 100%, as much as I can,” he said. “I think I did pretty okay.”
There was no fanfare, just a clear sense that he knows every lap now is an audition. Monza, with its slipstream battles and knife-edge braking, is exactly the sort of venue where a sharp, aggressive racer can stand out.
Iwasa steps into Verstappen’s car for FP1
Red Bull’s driver roster carousel keeps turning in Italy. Ayumu Iwasa will also be back in action, taking over Verstappen’s car in Free Practice 1 on Friday.
For the Japanese prospect, it is another vital window into the workings of the championship-winning team: one hour in the cockpit, one hour to impress the engineers, one hour to show he can handle the speed and complexity of the machinery Verstappen usually bends to his will.
Monza has seen plenty of careers launched and reshaped over the years. With Lawson back alongside Verstappen, Tsunoda pushing to convert opportunity into momentum, and Iwasa stepping into the champion’s car, the Italian Grand Prix weekend offers Red Bull and Racing Bulls more than just another race. It offers a live look at the next wave.
