Guenther Steiner didn’t ‘understand’ one moment during Liam Lawson’s final F1 race of 2025

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For the first time in Liam Lawson’s Formula 1 career, he goes into the winter break with some much-needed stability.

Liam Lawson’s cameo in 2023 led to a return to the grid the following year when Daniel Ricciardo was dropped by Racing Bulls.

A hastily decided promotion to Red Bull to replace Sergio Perez last winter piled pressure on a driver with less than 15 Grand Prix starts to his name, and led to a swift return to Alan Permane’s outfit.

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This year, although he’ll have a brand new teammate in the form of Arvid Lindblad, Lawson at least knows that he can rely on a level of continuity that he’s rarely enjoyed during his racing career.

Lawson finished 14th in the drivers’ championship after three important points finishes in the final eight races.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix didn’t quite go to plan for the New Zealander, but Guenther Steiner has explained that one of the deciding factors in his P18 finish was extremely harsh.

READ MORE: Who is Racing Bulls F1 driver Liam Lawson? Everything you need to know

Guenther Steiner disagrees with Liam Lawson’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix penalty

Steiner was asked on The Red Flags podcast whether Yuki Tsunoda deserved his penalty for weaving in front of Lando Norris at the Abu Dhabi GP.

He said: “Nothing should happen. This is racing. This is what we want to see. This is what we want to see.

“We don’t want to see the stewards getting popular with the people by handing out fines, getting attention.

“No, this was fair. I mean, it was racing. I think Yuki was on the edge of what he did. Lando was on the edge with it. It all worked out well. It gave us good moments of racing.

“I continue to say, if he stopped doing all these things, I can say it, who is going to watch racing?

“They don’t understand that because they want to be watched being stewards. And then because they did it with Yuki, they had to do it with the other two guys [Lawson and Oliver Bearman].

“It’s a long straight, it’s breaking the tow. It’s happened in racing before.

“It was not under breaking, and it was not brutal, and as you said, Lando overtook him on the outside. Lando took the risk.”

READ MORE: All to know about Racing Bulls from team principal to Red Bull affiliation

Liam Lawson set to become Racing Bulls team leader in 2026

Lawson picked up a penalty point alongside his time penalty in Abu Dhabi, leaving him with six on his licence.

Any driver who picks up 12 points receives a one-race ban, with Oliver Bearman currently closest to reaching that threshold.

Lawson is set to mentor Lindblad in 2026 as he steps up from Formula 2, and that additional responsibility should suit the 23-year-old.

There are very high hopes for the British teenager within Red Bull, but he didn’t dominate F2 like George Russell, Charles Leclerc or Oscar Piastri before his promotion.

Lawson explained why he didn’t fight Norris harder to try and stop the McLaren driver on his way to becoming world champion.

It would have been a full circle moment had Lawson managed to help his old Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen win the championship by holding Norris up.

But as Tsunoda proved later in the race, it proved far more difficult than Sergio Perez made it look against Lewis Hamilton in 2021.