Liam Lawson shrugs off Tsolov talk at Racing Bulls

Liam Lawson says speculation over his Racing Bulls future is not on his mind, insisting his focus remains on extending a strong 2026 Formula 1 run rather than worrying about Nikola Tsolov’s rise through the Red Bull pipeline.

Speaking to media including RacingNews365 and PlanetF1.com at Silverstone, the Racing Bulls driver dismissed the noise around a possible future seat fight. “It’s honestly not even something I’ve really thought about,” Lawson said. “Obviously, the summer break’s normally a time when things are heavily considered, and we have a few more races until then. So, at the moment, I’m just focused on continuing to do what we’ve been doing.”

That approach is backed up by his form. After nine rounds, Lawson sits 10th in the drivers’ championship on 39 points and has scored in five consecutive races. The run has turned his attention firmly toward maintaining momentum into the mid-season pause rather than engaging with paddock rumors.

He said that recent progress has given him every reason to stay fixed on the present. “It would be nice to go into that summer break with another good couple of races,” Lawson said. He added that he has already seen enough of Formula 1 to know how quickly stories can grow around the paddock, saying it is “not really something I’ve been thinking about.”

The background to those questions is Tsolov’s form in Formula 2. The Red Bull junior leads the championship after a surge that has included three straight wins, capped by taking both the sprint and feature races at Silverstone. Across the season, he has won six of 14 races, making him one of the standout names in Red Bull’s junior system as attention starts to shift toward 2027.

For Lawson, though, the more immediate argument is being made on track in Formula 1. His 39 points have already taken him beyond the 38 he scored across the whole of 2025, making this his most productive F1 season so far.

Those results also matter for Racing Bulls beyond any discussion about driver futures. Lawson’s consistency has helped drag the team to within one point of Alpine in the fight for fifth in the constructors’ championship, giving the next few races extra weight as the field heads toward the summer break.