Liam Lawson sets his first record in Red Bull beating Alex Albon. No driver has been promoted by the Red Bull F1 team after so few GPs, just 11.

The debuts
Liam Lawson’s brief career in Formula 1 so far has always been tied to Racing Bulls (formerly AlphaTauri), both as a reserve driver and in actual race participation in the championship. Curiously, in the last two years, the New Zealander has always stepped in for Daniel Ricciardo for different reasons: while in 2023 he made his debut replacing the Australian, who was injured during the Zandvoort weekend, the circumstances were more complex in the last season, with the Australian driver being dismissed, opening the door for Liam Lawson to have a more stable F1 stay until the end of the season.

Fewer than 15 GPs
Overall, the 22-year-old has raced in 11 GPs, earning 6 points and never finishing higher than 9th place as his best result. Beyond the results, the New Zealand talent still convinced Red Bull to invest in him for 2025, the year when the driver, who grew up in Milton Keynes’ Junior Team, will replace Sergio Perez to become Max Verstappen’s new teammate. While waiting to see how the New Zealander performs at the wheel of the Red Bull, his promotion is already a record.

The record and the move from Faenza to Milton Keynes
In the history of this team, Liam Lawson is the driver with the fewest races under his belt before moving to Red Bull. This record beats that of current Williams driver Alex Albon, who in 2019 (his F1 debut year) moved from AlphaTauri to Red Bull after just 12 GPs. Among other things, both Liam Lawson and Alex Albon are part of that group of drivers who made the leap from Red Bull’s satellite team to the main team, with varying results: this happened in the past with the already mentioned Daniel Ricciardo, as well as with Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly, and even earlier with Sebastian Vettel, who also won four consecutive world titles with Red Bull, just like current world champion Max Verstappen.