The full circle moment given to Lawson at the 2026 Dutch GP

Call it cosmic karma or poetic justice, but on the scene of Liam Lawson's Formula 1 debut, deputising for Daniel Ricciardo in 2023, the New Zealander is again replacing a driver in the Red Bull stable at Zandvoort because of a hand injury.

Lawson eventually used his five-race stint with AlphaTauri in 2023 as a launch pad for full-time graduation, as the organisation finally moved on from Ricciardo in the latter half of 2024.

That led to a Red Bull promotion in 2025, over Yuki Tsunoda, but after just two point-less weekends the New Zealander was unceremoniously swapped with Tsunoda and returned to the satellite team.

Having been hung out to try in a difficult car without getting enough time to find his feet, Lawson could have easily dropped his head or burned his bridges. But since then, the 24-year-old has been quietly but steadily rehabilitating himself, becoming a more rounded driver at Racing Bulls as he helped propel the Anglo-Italian squad to sixth place in the constructors' standings.

"I would have liked to have thought that with the right amount of time, I would have got my head around it honestly," Lawson reflected on his short-lived Red Bull Racing stint at the end of last year. "Two races was... I honestly don't even really remember them. But a lot of things have happened this year that have made me a lot stronger."

In the other Racing Bulls seat, Isack Hadjar hung on to his head start by being in the car all season and was, on average, the fastest of the two drivers over one lap - by an ever-decreasing margin - and the Frenchman getting the call to join the top team for 2026 was the logical decision.

Liam Lawson contested five races with AlphaTauri in 2023

Photo by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images

But at the same time, Lawson also showed enough speed, consistency and resilience to get another season, in which he is fighting a close intra-team battle with rookie Arvid Lindblad. Lawson is leading Lindblad 8-6 in the qualifying head-to-head, and the pair is regularly fighting for points.

"We could tell he certainly wasn't the same guy, and I don't want to say we rebuilt him because that's a little bit dramatic, but we just supported and helped him where we could," team principal Alan Permane said on F1's Beyond the Grid podcast.

“We're there to help him, but he made a turnaround. He worked hard in the simulator, he worked hard off track and on track, and I think we saw that culminating with some really, really good performances.

"He's laser-focused and you can see that you can see that in his driving. He's much more aware of the car, I think he works better and closer with his engineers, he knows what he wants from the car, he's able to drive it in a way to get the best out of the car.”

Red Bull's leadership has changed since that fateful Red Bull stint, with both team principal Christian Horner and driver development advisor Helmut Marko out of the picture. But Lawson now gets a chance to at least have a second go at the big team in a deputising role.

The knowledge of returning to Racing Bulls once Hadjar's wrist heals should take off some of that pressure. But as part of an organisation that exists to bring through drivers for the main team, and with junior driver Nikola Tsolov impressing in F2 and looking destined for a shot at Racing Bulls at some point in the near future, Lawson gets an opportunity to further raise his stock and improve his future outlook.

Liam Lawson managed just two grands prix during his first Red Bull stint

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

If all goes well with Hadjar's recovery, Lawson's second stint with Red Bull may well be even shorter than the first.

But strange things can happen in F1, just look at how the New Zealander got his chance in the first place. At best, it could be another launch pad for Lawson's long-term future.

At worst, it's a just reward for his perseverance and a way to come full circle with a character-building episode of his career.