The impressive stats underpinning Liam Lawson's career-saving F1 season

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Racing Bulls has finally announced Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad will stay put for the 2027 season, ending a long-running saga as the team and the wider Red Bull company weighed up keeping Lawson on board for another year or promoting the next prospect in the pipeline, F2 frontrunner Nikola Tsolov.

Read Also: Liam Lawson retained by Racing Bulls for 2027 alongside Arvid Lindblad

Lawson scored 89 points this year, 75 for Racing Bulls and 14 standing in for the injured Isack Hadjar for three races, as he played a pivotal role in Racing Bulls securing its best-ever constructors' championship result, with only an Alpine miracle keeping the team from locking up fifth.

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But what felt like a straightforward forward decision became increasingly complex given Racing Bulls' dual motives. On one hand, its main raison d'etre is still to find the next Max Verstappen or Kimi Antonelli, too. With Antonelli demonstrating the value of an early promotion to F1 - a tough learning year leading to a devastating title campaign aged 20 - some executives were keen to see Tsolov fast-tracked to maximise his growth.

But Racing Bulls is also tasked to stand on its own two feet both commercially and in terms of on-track performance. Therefore, taking the prize money attached to fifth place is a huge boost for the Anglo-Italian team, which has significantly invested in its infrastructure in recent years.

That's where Lawson comes in. His 2026 performances have been so crucial to the team, and his newfound consistency - despite a mid-season three-race run at Red Bull to deputise for Hadjar - has given the team a solid benchmark to evaluate the progress of rookie Lindblad. That is now set to continue in 2027, with Tsolov set for a reserve role that includes an increased workload of private testing, rookie FP1 sessions and simulator duties.

The following stats really demonstrate why Lawson has simply been too good and too valuable for the team to overlook.

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

Leading the midfield world championship

1 Liam Lawson - Racing Bulls - 75*

2 Pierre Gasly - Alpine - 42

3 Arvid Lindblad - Racing Bulls - 38

4Franco Colapinto - Alpine - 27

5Oliver Bearman - Haas - 23

6Gabriel Bortoleto - Audi - 14

7 Nico Hülkenberg - Audi - 14

8Esteban Ocon - Haas - 7

9Fernando Alonso - Aston Martin - 7

10Carlos Sainz - Williams - 7

*75 points for Racing Bulls, not counting the 14 points Lawson scored for Red Bull

Most grand prix top 10 finishes (15)

1Lewis Hamilton - 19

2 Kimi Antonelli - 18

3 Charles Leclerc - 18

4 Max Verstappen - 16

5 Lando Norris - 16

6George Russell - 15

7 Liam Lawson - 15 

8 Isack Hadjar - 14*

9Oscar Piastri - 13

10 Arvid Lindblad - 11

11 Pierre Gasly - 10

Lawson also leads the midfield in number of grand prix points finishes with 15 top 10 results in 20 races and just a single DNF. 

*Hadjar missed three races due to a wrist fracture.

Constructors' standings if Racing Bulls had only run Lawson

1Mercedes - 652

2Ferrari - 510

3 Red Bull - 415

4McLaren - 398

5 Racing Bulls - 75* 

6 Alpine - 69

7 Haas - 31

8 Audi - 28

9 Williams - 12

10 Aston Martin - 7

11 Cadillac - 0

*Standings with just one car running Lawson

Qualifying record vs Lindblad

Arvid Lindblad 7-14

(6-11 without sprints)

Liam Lawson

9

(+1.253s in Q3)

 Australia

8

15

(+0.334s in SQ2)

 China (sprint)13

15

(+0.019s in Q2)

 China14

10

 Japan

14

(+0.386s in Q2)

16

Miami (sprint)

17

(+0.171s in SQ1)

17

(+0.538s in Q1)

Miami

12

9

 Canada (sprint)

DNS

9

Canada

12

(+0.349s in Q2)

15

(+0.777s in Q2)

Monaco

10

11

(+0.255s in Q2)

Barcelona 

8

10

(+0.052s in Q3)

Austria

9

10

(+0.440s in SQ3)

Britain (sprint)

9

9

Britain

10

(+0.411s in Q3)

8

Belgium

11

(+0.491s in Q2)

9

Hungary

11

(+0.405s in Q2)

15

(+0.246s in Q2)

Azerbaijan

 12

16

(no time - grid penalty)

Bahrain in Malaysia

11

17

(+0.281s in SQ1)

Singapore (sprint)

8

10

(+0.412s in Q3)

Singapore

9

9

United States

10

(No lap time in Q3) 

9

(+0.088s in Q3)

Mexico

8

14

(+4.638s in Q2 - rain)

Brazil

5

 

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