Mekies praises Lawson’s 'very strong' Red Bull stint after sixth in Madrid

Laurent Mekies has praised Liam Lawson's "very strong" stint with Red Bull, with the New Zealander standing in for the injured Isack Hadjar across the last three race weekends.

Lawson's promotion back to Red Bull, albeit on a temporary basis, has been a chance of redemption after the 24-year-old managed just two race weekends for the team at the start of the 2025 season before being sent back to Racing Bulls.

His latest stint with the senior squad has been much more positive with seventh on his first outing in Zandvoort, while he backed that up with a solid sixth last weekend in Madrid.

With plenty more experience under his belt, Red Bull team boss Mekies has been impressed with what Lawson has managed to achieve so far.

“I think he's done a very good job," he said. "I think we all know how difficult it is to jump to a different team, to a different car, and I think that he has done that to the best of what could have been our expectations.

“He has taken some very important points today with the P6. He did the same in Zandvoort and in Monza he would have done something similar without the contact with Nico [Hulkenberg] and the front wing damage.

“So, I think he did a very good job, again very different pictures compared to the first two races of 2025 when he was in the team so we are thankful and happy with that.”

During his brief stint with Red Bull at the start of 2025, Lawson qualified 18th and 20th in his two qualifying sessions with the team and he was also 20th on the grid for the first Sprint of the season. He failed to score in either Australia or China, in stark contrast to team mate Max Verstappen who finished those races second and fourth.

But thus far, his second Red Bull stint has been much more positive. He has qualified eighth twice in the two race weekends where his performance was unhampered by grid penalties – Lawson was forced to take a grid drop at Monza as his car needed a raft of new PU components, which understandably hindered his race performance.

Having finished seventh and sixth in Zandvoort and Madrid, he has added to the team’s points tally, and has also been respectable in terms of pace difference to Verstappen. Jumping into the car at a Sprint weekend, while also having to drive the RB22 at a new track, also meant the timing was less than ideal for the New Zealander.

But a year and a half’s worth of added experience seems to have very much paid off this time around.

“I think he has continued to grow as a driver and he's very calm in the car, he is very focused,” added Mekies. “He's certainly making - I don't know if he makes an effort or not - but he's certainly managed to keep things simple in the way he interacts with the team and in the way he tackles his own performance and the car performance.

“So, he's focused on the essentials. He tries to get the basic rights and it's working for him, of course with more time in the car, you can then get to another degree of finesse, maybe. But I think that approach is very, very strong.”

Whether Lawson gets a fourth go at Red Bull remains to be seen, with Hadjar still recovering from the wrist injury he sustained in the summer break.