Liam Lawson's Productive Friday at Monza with Red Bull
Liam Lawson is not here to make up the numbers. Dropped into a Red Bull for a second straight weekend, the New Zealander turned his first day at Monza into something far more valuable than a headline lap time.
He still found one of those, though.
The 24-year-old fired an early warning shot in FP1, clocking 1m 23.433s to go fourth-fastest and park his Red Bull among the frontrunners at the Italian Grand Prix. On a circuit that punishes hesitation and rewards commitment, Lawson looked anything but tentative.
The afternoon told a different story on the timing sheets, but not in the garage.
Red Bull switched him to heavy-focus race work in FP2, sacrificing a qualifying-style push for information. Lawson opened the session with a brief short run, then settled into two long stints on soft and hard tyres, building the sort of rhythm that matters on Sunday, not Friday.
He wound up 12th with a 1m 23.660s, but the gap told the real tale: just 0.283s behind teammate Max Verstappen, who finished ninth. For a stand-in still learning the car at one of the fastest tracks on the calendar, that margin carries weight.
Lawson called it “a productive day” and “good learning” – understated words, but they fit the pattern of his current run.
Drafted back into Red Bull last weekend when Isack Hadjar’s wrist injury ruled him out of Zandvoort, Lawson responded with a composed drive to seventh in the Dutch Grand Prix. Yuki Tsunoda moved across to fill Lawson’s usual seat at Racing Bulls, and that arrangement continues in Italy with Hadjar still sidelined.
Monza Challenge
Monza, though, is a different beast.
The old temple of speed demands nerve on the brakes and discipline through the chicanes, but it also demands something more tactical: the tow. Friday underlined that reality again, with drivers jostling for position to catch a slipstream on their flying laps. Lawson knows it will be a factor when the grid is decided.
“It’s something we’ll discuss, and we’ll come up with a plan,” he said, as Red Bull began to map out how to use the draft to its advantage in qualifying.
If Zandvoort exposed where he still needs to grow, Lawson is leaning straight into it. He admitted he “struggled more… in the race than quali” there, a clear hint that this Monza programme – long runs, tyre data, traffic management – is being built around turning that weakness into a weapon.
While Lawson dug into the detail, the established names traded blows at the top.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc lit up the tifosi in FP1, topping the times with a 1m 23.00s and giving the grandstands an early reason to believe in another home weekend charge. Later, George Russell pushed Mercedes to the front in FP2, lowering the benchmark to 1m 22.559s.
Those numbers will tighten again when the fuel comes out and the engines are turned up. For Lawson, the picture is simpler: a solid baseline, a small gap to one of the sport’s dominant figures, and another night to absorb Red Bull’s playbook.
Qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix arrives on Sunday (2am NZT), with the race following on Monday (1am NZT).
Two weekends, two stand-in drives, one of the most coveted seats in motorsport under his hands again. Lawson has turned Friday into an opportunity. What he does with Saturday and Sunday will say even more about where his Formula 1 story goes next.
