Jolyon Palmer is concerned about Liam Lawson being Racing Bulls’ team leader in 2026

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Jolyon Palmer has questioned whether Liam Lawson has the experience to lead Racing Bulls during the 2026 Formula 1 season.

After a large cohort of rookie drivers joined the grid in 2025, Arvid Lindblad stands alone as the only new driver in the paddock this year.

That comes with pros and cons for the teenager, but means Liam Lawson is the least experienced senior driver on the grid this year.

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Lawson has started 35 Grand Prix in his career thus far, but Racing Bulls will be leaning on him heavily to help develop the car during testing and deliver points once the season starts.

Racing Bulls chose Lawson over the more experienced Yuki Tsunoda this year, but Jolyon Palmer has questioned whether the New Zealander has the capacity to lead the team during a regulation change.

He made a comparison to another team on the grid, which infamously had two rookies in the car one season, but abandoned that idea after a torrid campaign.

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

Jolyon Palmer unsure Liam Lawson has the experience to lead Racing Bulls in 2026

Palmer was speaking on commentary for Sky Sports F1 (19/2 7:38 am) about Haas bringing in a ‘professional driver’ in the form of Kevin Magnussen when Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin had been in the car in 2021.

He explained: “It was a tough year with the rookies, with Mick Schumacher, Formula 2 champ, and Nikita Mazepin as well, struggling so badly in his one and only year.

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“Mick did all right in 2022, held his own, but I do think having an established driver in the team is such a must-have, especially for a new set of regulations.

“It will be interesting to see with Racing Bulls this year, with Arvid Lindblad, obviously massively inexperienced.

“Liam Lawson’s going to have to lead the team now, he hasn’t got a huge amount of experience himself, has he?”

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

Racing Bulls have their least experienced line-up since 2018

The purpose of Racing Bulls in Formula 1 is to develop drivers so that they’re ready to compete for Red Bull in the future.

Isack Hadjar is the perfect example of that this season after impressing alongside Lawson last year.

However, over the past few years, Racing Bulls’ line-ups have been pretty experienced.

Tsunoda is one of the main reasons for that, given he spent four years at RB before his promotion last year.

But before him, Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat both spent decent spells with AlphaTauri before moving on.

The last time that team started with a line-up with as few starts as Lawson and Lindblad this year was 2018.

Gasly was joined by Brendon Hartley, and the pair had mixed success in Formula 1.

Lawson will hope that he can follow in Gasly’s footsteps and continue his F1 career elsewhere once he decides to leave Racing Bulls, as opposed to Hartley, who struggled during his 25 race starts.