劳森在红牛第三场比赛证明自己：赞德福特站表现符合期望
利亚姆·劳森在红牛车队的第三场比赛表现符合车队期望，排位赛紧随马克斯·维斯塔潘之后，正赛无重大失误并最终获得积分。但这场比赛并非2025年4月的铃鹿站，而是约17个月后的赞德福特站。
利亚姆·劳森终于迎来了他的“本可以怎样”时刻
利亚姆·劳森在红牛的第三场比赛正是红牛当初希望从利亚姆·劳森身上看到的表现。排位赛表现出色，紧紧跟在马克斯·维斯塔潘身后。比赛中没有犯大错，节奏强劲，还拿到了积分。他终于证明了自己配得上那个席位……
只不过，他在红牛的第三场比赛并不是2025年4月的铃鹿，而是大约17个月之后的赞德沃特。
那么，我们该如何解读劳森的这个周末呢？它到底又证明了什么呢？
劳森是一名有能力的大奖赛车手？不，不是这个。这本来也太明显了。一两场比赛无法改变这种看法。他职业生涯所做的一切已经足够说明问题。
这也不能证明他注定会赢得世界冠军。毕竟一个周末就只是一个周末。你需要大得多的样本才能下这个结论。
这甚至不能作为证据，去支持“如果当初让他继续驾驶小红牛21，他本可以扭转2025赛季”的说法。因为无论怎样，他的赛季本会变成一场持续的噩梦，这一点看起来和这个周末之前一样可能——这都是由他所处的环境造成的。
劳森被提拔到红牛时，总共只参加过11场一级方程式比赛，分散在两年里的两段短暂时期中，而且他被扔进了一辆多年来完全围绕维斯塔潘打造和研发的赛车。
劳森排位赛正好处在维斯塔潘身后，甚至在第一圈就和这位荷兰车手展开了缠斗。
赞德福特赛道或许恰恰证明了这一点：小红牛21与其说适合他的驾驶风格，程度大概就像奥康的赛车服穿在角田裕毅身上那么合身——或者甚至应该反过来说才对。
他几乎毫无经验，却被那些老板们置于巨大的压力之下——而那些老板当时之所以选择劳森，似乎仅仅是因为他们更不信任角田裕毅——他几乎注定要失败，而且不可否认，他失败得相当惨烈。但这也发生在他从未在一级方程式比赛中跑过的赛道上，此前还经历了一场艰难的季前测试，同时还要面对由红牛自己推波助澜的无休止的媒体审视。
在三次未能逃出第一节排位赛（其中包括在中国冲刺赛周末两次排位垫底）、并且不可避免地一分未得之后，他被扫地出门。在墨尔本的湿滑赛道上他还发生了一次事故，但公平地说，那天出事撞车的并非只有他一个。不过，缺乏速度这一点确实令人瞠目。
如今，在表面上看甚至更加不利的情况下——周一才接到通知，出发前往荷兰之前才进行了一次模拟器测试，而且只有一节自由练习赛来适应一辆全新的赛车——劳森的这个周末近乎完美。你可以说他没能在周五晚上的冲刺排位赛中晋级前三名排位赛（SQ3）是他的责任，但就连赫尔穆特·马尔科可能也不会怪他。在正赛排位赛中，劳森与维斯塔潘的差距仅为0.115秒，而在正赛中，他最终是唯一拿到积分的红牛车手——而且这个周末车队看起来也没比他最终的第7名有多少更多可取的东西了。
你可以用维斯塔潘被问到劳森排位赛表现时的说法来解释这一切。这位荷兰人的理论契合了他今年一贯的说法：2026年的F1赛车缺陷太大，以至于最好的车手也无法拉开多大差距。几小时后被问到这一理论的安德烈亚·斯特拉则委婉地表示不同意，他指出今年的技术太过复杂，微小的差异实际上反而会造成更大的差距。但很可能两个人其实都是对的。在2025年初交给劳森的那辆小红牛21上，维斯塔潘确实能产生巨大的影响——而第二辆车由谁来开其实并不重要。塞尔吉奥·佩雷斯在2024年底驾驶小红牛20时的表现也好不到哪儿去。后来角田裕毅也一样。
那么，劳森在赞德沃特的这个周末到底证明了什么？证明劳森能做得和伊萨克·哈贾尔一样好吗？不，这一点我们去年就看过了。也许它证明了同一位车手在拥有更多F1经验之后能更好地应对这样的挑战？嗯，这一点除了赫尔穆特·马尔科和克里斯蒂安·霍纳之外，恐怕对所有人来说都相当显而易见。
也许唯一真正能得出的结论是：红牛一年半前那些仓促的车手决定，确实和当时看起来一样疯狂。而且失败的并不是劳森——而是那些做出决定的人。
2025年3月，在解释这一决定时，赫尔穆特·马尔科指出，红牛并不是简单地把劳森降级回 青训车队（初级车队）——而是在拯救他的职业生涯。然而，如果当初没有被置于一个几乎没有回报的位置上，他的职业生涯或许根本不需要被拯救。
对劳森来说，这一切令人苦涩的地方在于，他在赞德沃特的表现可能对他的未来前景没有太大帮助。是的，他的2027年席位尚未确定——但他此前在小红牛已经干得足够扎实，本来有相当大的机会再赢得一年。这个周末会让他重新回到争夺红牛“大牌”席位的人选之列吗？嗯，随着马尔科已经离开，你很难想象哈贾尔会在没有明显理由的情况下被砍掉。
这个故事中还不可避免地存在“本可以怎样”的部分。如果红牛在2025赛季前的冬天做出了合乎逻辑的决定，那辆带毒性的小红牛21很可能从一开始就属于角田裕毅。劳森本可以在法恩扎车队再待一年，甚至有可能在2026年坐到维斯塔潘旁边——开一辆友好得多的赛车，带着多得多的经验，而且没有在红牛“失败”的污名。
然而，毫无疑问，这个周末对劳森本人来说非常重要。不是因为他向自己证明了什么。他大概早就知道自己是一名有能力的大奖赛车手。他说，他知道如果2025年获得更多时间，自己最终本会有更好的表现。他比任何人都清楚，在那两场比赛中，他面对的是一项几乎不可能完成的任务。
其他人可能有不同的看法。
2026年的赞德沃特只是让他们显得很可笑。
英文原文
Liam Lawson finally got his 'what could have been' moment
Liam Lawson's third race at Red Bull was exactly what Red Bull would have wanted from Liam Lawson. Solid qualifying, right behind Max Verstappen. No big mistakes and strong pace in the race. Points. He finally proved he deserved to be in that seat...
It's just that his third race at Red Bull wasn't Suzuka in April 2025, but Zandvoort some 17 months later.
So, how should we interpret Lawson's weekend? And what does it actually prove?
That Lawson is a capable grand prix driver? No, not that. That's too obvious anyway. One or two races can't change that perception. Everything he's done during his career is enough.
It doesn't prove he's destined to win the world championship either. One weekend is one weekend, after all. You'd need a much broader sample.
It can't even be used as evidence to back the claim that he could have turned his 2025 campaign around had he been given the chance to keep driving the RB21. Because it still looks as likely as it did before this weekend that his season would have turned into a continuous nightmare, no matter what – because of the circumstances he was dealing with.
Lawson was promoted to Red Bull with just 11 F1 races under his belt, spread across two short stints over two years, and thrown into a car that had been built and developed completely around Verstappen over the years.
Lawson qualified right behind Verstappen and even battled with the Dutchman on lap one
What Zandvoort probably proves is that the RB21 did indeed suit his driving style about as well as Esteban Ocon's overalls would fit Yuki Tsunoda – or perhaps even the other way around.
With almost no experience and put under enormous pressure by bosses who seemingly only chose Lawson back then because they believed in Tsunoda even less, he was almost destined to fail – and, there's no denying it, he did so spectacularly. But it also happened at tracks he had never raced at in F1, following a difficult pre-season test, while being exposed to relentless media scrutiny fuelled by Red Bull itself.
He was shown the door after failing to escape Q1 three times – including qualifying last twice on the sprint weekend in China – and inevitably scoring zero points. There was also an accident in Melbourne on a damp track, but he wasn't the only one crashing out that day, to be fair. The lack of pace, though, was just staggering.
Now, in what on the face of it were even worse circumstances – with a call on Monday, a simulator session right before his departure to the Netherlands and only one free practice session to adapt to a completely new machine – Lawson's weekend was near-perfect. You can pin the blame on him for not progressing into SQ3 on Friday evening in sprint qualifying, but even Helmut Marko probably wouldn't. Lawson's gap to Verstappen in main qualifying was a tiny 0.115s, and in the race he ultimately was the only Red Bull driver to score points – and it didn't look like there was a lot more on the table for the team this weekend than his eventual P7.
You can explain it the way Verstappen did when he was asked about Lawson's qualifying performance. The Dutchman's theory suits his narrative this year: F1 2026 is so flawed that the best drivers can't make as much of a difference. Andrea Stella, who was presented with that theory a few hours later, tactfully disagreed, noting that the technology is so complex this year that tiny differences can actually result in bigger gaps. But it may well be that both are actually right. In the RB21 Lawson was handed at the start of 2025, Verstappen indeed could make a huge difference – and it didn't really matter who was driving the second car. Sergio Perez at the end of 2024 wasn't really a lot better at the wheel of the RB20. Neither was Tsunoda later.
So, what did Lawson's Zandvoort weekend really prove? That Lawson can do as good a job as Isack Hadjar? No, we saw that last year. Maybe it proves that the same driver with considerably more Formula 1 experience can deal with such a challenge better? Well, that was probably fairly obvious to everyone apart from Helmut Marko and Christian Horner anyway.
Maybe the only real takeaway is that Red Bull's hectic driver decisions a year and a half ago were indeed as insane as they looked back then. And that it wasn't Lawson who failed – it was those making the calls.
In March 2025, explaining the decision, Helmut Marko pointed out that Red Bull wasn't simply demoting Lawson back to the junior team – it was saving his career instead. Yet his career perhaps wouldn't have needed any saving had he not been put in a position from which he had almost nothing to gain in the first place.
What's bitter for Lawson in all of this is that his Zandvoort performance probably isn't going to do much for his future prospects. No, his 2027 seat isn't confirmed yet - but he was already doing a solid enough job with Racing Bulls to have a fair chance of earning another year. Will this weekend put him back in contention for the "big" Red Bull seat? Well, with Marko not around anymore, you wouldn't really expect Hadjar to get axed for no apparent reason.
There's an inevitable 'what could have been' part of the story as well. Had Red Bull acted logically in the winter leading up to the 2025 season, the poisoned RB21 would probably have been Tsunoda's to take from the start. Lawson would have got another year with the Faenza squad and potentially could have started 2026 next to Verstappen – in a much friendlier car, with a lot more experience. And without the stigma of having 'failed' at Red Bull.
Yet, no doubt, this weekend was very important for Lawson himself. Not because he proved something to himself. He probably knew he was a capable grand prix driver. He says he knew he'd eventually have done better had he been given more time in 2025. He is aware, more than anyone, that he faced an almost impossible task in the two races he was given.
Others might have had different opinions.
Zandvoort 2026 just makes them look silly.
Motorsport.com ·
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