Guenther Steiner tells Liam Lawson why he’d be ‘gone’ from F1 if Red Bull weren’t his employers

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Liam Lawson is one of the final drivers on the Formula 1 grid yet to discover his fate for next season, but Guenther Steiner has suggested the Racing Bulls star has already been ‘very lucky’ this season.

Racing Bulls are exactly two months away from testing their 2026 Formula 1 car publicly for the very first time.

However, they’re also the only team on the grid who have yet to confirm either of the drivers who will be helping them with that development before next season kicks off.

Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson have guided Racing Bulls to sixth in the constructors’ championship, with a little bit of help from Yuki Tsunoda at the start of the campaign.

Hadjar looks set to replace Tsunoda next year, thanks to his strong rookie campaign. That leaves Lawson and Tsunoda potentially battling it out for a spot alongside Arvid Lindblad within Alan Permane’s team next year.

Guenther Steiner has been analysing the New Zealand driver’s 2025 campaign, and believes he’s ‘very lucky’ to still be in Formula 1 after an awful start to the year following his Red Bull promotion over the winter break.

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

Guenther Steiner says Liam Lawson is ‘very lucky’ to be part of the Red Bull driver roster

Steiner was speaking on the Drive to Wynn podcast immediately after the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Lawson hit Oscar Piastri going into the first corner of the race, ruining his chances of scoring points and failing to take advantage of a brilliant performance in qualifying, where he managed to come home in P6.

Talking about the rookie drivers on the grid, Steiner moved onto Lawson and said: “Liam Lawson, we know that he was pretty good, and he needed a little bit of time to recover from the few races in the Red Bull, because for sure that knocked him down a little bit.

“But now he’s doing good. He got lucky.

“We know he fell on his feet because Red Bull had a second team. In any other team, once he was out, he would not come back in anymore. He was very lucky.

“And he proved now that he’s still pretty good and can stay in Formula 1, but any other team without a second team. I mean, he would be gone.”

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

Liam Lawson could be retained by Racing Bulls to help Arvid Lindblad

The issue Red Bull have with their current set of drivers is that none appear to be fast enough to support Max Verstappen.

Lawson was quickly cast aside by Christian Horner after the Chinese Grand Prix, and Tsunoda hasn’t fared much better.

It’s putting an awful lot of pressure on Hadjar after just one year in Formula 1 to be the solution to their woes.

Laurent Mekies still has doubts over Lindblad, and Red Bull might be waiting to see how the final two rounds of the Formula 2 championship go before confirming his place on the grid next year.

There’s now a suggestion that Lawson might be retained to mentor Lindblad next season, with his hopes of a second Red Bull promotion almost non-existent.

He could still carve out a decent F1 career away from the Red Bull family like Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, but in order to do so, he needs to stay on the grid heading into 2026.