Road to Formula 1

He was born on 11 February 2002 in Hastings, on New Zealand’s North Island. In every junior series he entered — Formula First, Formula Ford, Formula 4 and Asian Formula 3 — he won his very first race. In 2019 he became champion of his home Toyota Racing Series, sealing the title the day before his 17th birthday, and that same year he joined the Red Bull junior programme. Also in 2019 he spent his first season in Formula 3 with MP Motorsport, taking his first podium in the sprint at Silverstone and finishing the championship 11th, while also finishing second in Euroformula Open.

In 2020 he moved to Hitech, won three Formula 3 races and finished fifth in the championship. In 2021 he stepped up to Formula 2 with the same team: he won the very first race of the season, the sprint in Bahrain, and finished the championship 11th. At the same time he spent his rookie DTM season in an AF Corse Ferrari — he arrived at the Norisring finale leading the standings, but after a first-lap collision in the last race he ended up second; AF Corse still won the teams’ title.

In 2022 he raced in Formula 2 for Carlin and finished the season third. In 2023 he went to Japan’s Super Formula with Team Mugen and was runner-up in his very first year: in the final race of the season at Suzuka on 29 October 2023 he started from pole and finished second.

A debut as a stand-in

His World Championship chance came out of the blue. At the Dutch Grand Prix on 27 August 2023 AlphaTauri put him in the car in place of Daniel Ricciardo, who had broken his hand in a practice crash: from 19th on the grid he finished 13th in a wet race. He went on to race in five Grands Prix in a row. At the Singapore Grand Prix on 17 September 2023 he made it into Q3, ahead of Max Verstappen, and in the race he finished ninth for his first points. The last race of that run was the Qatar Grand Prix on 8 October 2023.

In 2024 he replaced Ricciardo again — from the United States Grand Prix on 20 October to the end of the season, six races for the team now racing as RB. He finished ninth in the first of them, and at the São Paulo Grand Prix on 3 November 2024 he qualified fifth and again finished ninth.

Red Bull and a return to Racing Bulls

On 19 December 2024 Red Bull announced that in 2025 Lawson would replace Sergio Pérez in the senior team alongside Max Verstappen. It lasted two Grands Prix: he retired in Australia on 16 March 2025 and finished 12th in China on 23 March, and on 27 March 2025 the team announced the reverse swap — Yuki Tsunoda moved up to Red Bull Racing from the Japanese Grand Prix, and Lawson returned to Racing Bulls as Isack Hadjar’s team-mate.

His first points of the season came at the Monaco Grand Prix on 25 May 2025 with eighth place. On 29 June 2025 in Austria he started and finished sixth, and at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on 21 September 2025 he qualified third and finished the race fifth.

2026 season

He began the first season of the new technical regulations at Racing Bulls, with Arvid Lindblad as his team-mate. At the Australian Grand Prix on 8 March 2026 he started eighth and finished 13th; his first points of the year came with seventh place at the Chinese Grand Prix on 15 March 2026. On 7 June 2026 in Monaco he finished fifth from 10th on the grid, and on 5 July 2026 he was sixth at the British Grand Prix.

On 19 August 2026 Red Bull announced that Isack Hadjar would miss the Dutch Grand Prix with a wrist injury and that Lawson would temporarily take his place alongside Verstappen, with reserve driver Yuki Tsunoda standing in for Lawson at Racing Bulls. The arrangement was extended race by race while Hadjar recovered: at Zandvoort on 23 August 2026 Lawson finished seventh, at Monza on 6 September 2026 he started 22nd and came home 14th, and at the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid on 13 September 2026 he finished sixth from eighth on the grid.