Liam Lawson admits he doesn’t feel fully ‘ready’ for the 2026 F1 season

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Liam Lawson is preparing for his second full F1 season and his first complete campaign with Racing Bulls. But speaking before the Australian Grand Prix, he acknowledged he’s taking a step into the ‘unknown’ this year.

Lawson’s Racing Bulls team could be the ‘best of the rest’ behind the top four based on their showing in pre-season testing. The new Red Bull power unit has impressed the paddock, both in terms of performance and reliability.

Racing Bulls only confirmed their line-up of Lawson and Arvid Lindblad for 2026, which is in keeping with Red Bull policy. That means that the New Zealander is once again fighting to stay in Formula 1.

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Liam Lawson doesn’t know what to expect from 2026 F1 cars

Speaking on the Mike Hosking Breakfast show, Lawson said he has grown ‘a lot’ in the last 12 months. This time last year, he was preparing for his Red Bull debut.

But within two weeks of the season starting, Red Bull demoted Lawson to Racing Bulls. With his career clearly at risk, he rallied in the final two-thirds of the season and saw off competition from Yuki Tsunoda for the final spot on the grid.

But given that the 2026 cars are drastically different, Lawson can’t say he feels totally ‘ready’. He completed nearly 500 laps in the VCARB03 but the first race weekend will naturally be a different challenge.

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“On a personal note, I learnt a lot last year,” he said. “It was a very important season for me, especially to survive it. I think that’s been something that I’ve learned a lot from, probably more than a lot of people would learn from a season, just because of all the things that we went through.

“On that side, I’m grateful to have done that and I feel a lot better going into this year. Just because of new cars and new regulations, it throws a whole new thing in there that is quite unknown.

“I’ll never feel fully prepared – probably not the right word – but ready for something when I’m not 100% sure on how it’s going to be.”

‘I probably won’t watch’ Drive to Survive, Liam Lawson says

Predictably, Lawson’s demotion is a prominent storyline in the new season of Drive to Survive, which released last Friday.

Lawson even had to change his shirt during one of his interviews, swapping Red Bull merchandise for Racing Bulls gear. That rather uncomfortable moment was included in the final cut.

There are signs, based on internal conversations, that Christian Horner regretted dropping Lawson. But the 23-year-old told Hosking that he had no intention of watching the show.

“No, I haven’t seen it, and I probably won’t watch,” he said.