劳森尚未获明年合同，表现令红牛难以割舍
新西兰车手利亚姆·劳森目前仍未拿到下赛季合同，但他的表现让红牛几乎无法不与他续约。F1电视台赛后直播中，乔利恩·帕尔默直接询问他何时会被官宣。
明年合同仍未到手——但这位新西兰人正让红牛几乎无法不与他再续约一个赛季。
乔利恩·帕尔默在F1电视台赛后直播中询问利亚姆·劳森的未来时，并非刻意求新。这只是一个任何人都会问的问题——或许劳森自己也会问。这种问题问出口时并不真的期待答案，更多是出于疑惑：为什么答案不已经是显而易见的“是”。
“又一场比赛，又一场胜利，在你所参与的那场比赛中，实际上就是中游集团的争夺，”这位前雷诺车手、如今F1顶级分析师之一在同事问了几个问题后对劳森说。随后他又补充道：“你什么时候会被官宣参加明年比赛？”
关于劳森是否配得上留在F1、留在现车队，本不该有任何疑问。任何一支正在争取队史最佳成绩的车队，理应早已锁定那位贡献了最大份额积分的车手。这样的车队不会希望他变得不耐烦或感到不安。
如果利亚姆·劳森是为几乎任何其他车队比赛，没有人会谈论他的未来，而潜在延迟的唯一原因可能是他的管理团队要求为客户争取更好的条件。如果劳森是为另一支车队交出这样的表现，他大概会要求更多钱、更少的社交媒体时间，以及不再乘坐易捷航空的航班。
但事实并非如此。因为他确实是在为小红牛车队比赛。而且他是红牛车手。而当你身处这样的位置时，一切从来都不会简单直接。
“我不知道，伙计，”劳森笑着回应道。“说实话，目前已经到了我甚至不太去想这件事的地步。我只是继续前进，享受比赛，说实话。”
而且没有理由认为劳森真的在为他不确定的未来感到焦虑。他在这个位置上待得够久了，已经不再去琢磨外界观察者不断提出的关于红牛车手决定的那些同样的问题了。
在2024年冬天，局外人可能会问：一个仅仅参加过11场F1比赛的车手，到底为什么会被提拔？或者，几个月后：你怎么能给这家伙仅仅两场比赛——然后就解雇他？又或者现在：这家伙还需要做什么才能保住下赛季的席位？
但对劳森来说，这大概就是常态。没有理由为此紧张——该发生什么就发生什么。所以他只是继续前进，真正享受比赛。而且进展得非常顺利。
关于他在奥斯汀的比赛，没什么太多可说的。就像基米·安东内利一样——对于这位意大利人在德克萨斯州的胜利，你究竟能解释什么呢？真的没有太多：执行完美、交付精彩、控制得当。你还能想到另外几个形容词——但没有什么实质内容可以附着其上。没有太多戏剧性。他似乎轻松巡航夺冠。
而劳森在中游集团也几乎做了同样的事。
他在排位赛中表现出色，再次闯入Q3，并接受了车队的要求，在最后一节排位中不出场，以帮助因罚退而受影响的队友。尽管如此，他仍位列第九——在现代F1中，这相当于中游车队的杆位。
利亚姆·劳森，小红牛，皮埃尔·加斯利，阿尔派，奥利弗·贝尔曼，哈斯F1车队
随后是一个非常干净的起步。他在上坡进入1号弯时挡住了皮埃尔·加斯利，然后紧跟在两辆迈凯伦之后。他拉开了差距，完成了进站，并在硬胎上完美地管理了剩余赛程直到终点。没有戏剧性。没有压力。只有执行。
“对我们来说，这是一场非常强劲的比赛，也是一个强劲的周末，”他在赛后告诉媒体。“执行得很好，所以非常非常开心。显然接下来几场比赛，有一些有趣的赛道。但赛车一直运行良好，所以希望在那里也能表现出色。”
他在周四承受的压力要大得多，当时他在奥斯汀与朋友们一起完成了自己的首场正式现场音乐会。
“我的意思是，今天大概只有那次的10%，”他在与帕尔默及其同事的交谈中开玩笑说。
第九名已经是他所能取得的最好成绩，因为F1四大领先车队中没有车手退赛。这对劳森来说又是一场中场胜利，他今年还轻松领跑非官方的中场锦标赛。
是的，当然，他曾代表红牛车队参加过几场比赛，但谁又能说他如果改为代表小红牛车队参赛，积分就会明显少很多呢？也许少几分吧。无论如何，他现在对皮埃尔·加斯利的“锦标赛领先优势”已达到35分——这非常巨大——而且他看起来很可能在积分榜上保持第九名直到年底。
“中游车队最佳”并没有官方头衔，但这个说法通常用来形容一个非常强劲的赛季。
当年，这支位于法恩扎的车队还叫小红牛，由一位沉稳安静的奥地利人弗朗茨·托斯特掌管，几乎每年的目标都是拿到制造商锦标赛第五名。托斯特在每个新赛季前的媒体露面中几乎例行公事地宣布这一目标——但在他的领导下，车队从未真正实现过。
今年可能终于要实现了！
这支前小红牛车队现在是唯一一支积分超过100分的中游车队，而阿尔派看起来已经不再接近了。尤其是考虑到这些小红牛赛车已经变得多么快、多么顺手；而劳森正是为托斯特的老东家带来最大差距的人。
那么……为什么他明年的合同还没签？
这可能只是走个形式，小红牛只需要在宣布劳森续约之前敲定尼古拉·措洛夫2027年的计划。但说到红牛，你永远说不准。这支车队身份的一部分就是寻找下一个塞巴斯蒂安·维特尔或马克斯·维斯塔潘，而有时这意味着牺牲已成名的车手来提拔青训车手。
这种事过去发生过很多次，将来很可能还会再发生。但如果劳森在经历了这样一年之后被扫地出门，那将是红牛处理车手历史上最残酷的决定之一。
也完全没有理由急着提拔措洛夫。没错，他是F2的主要争冠者之一，但红牛现在并不是急需另一位超级新星青训车手。马克斯·维斯塔潘的合同已经延长，伊萨克·哈贾尔也正好在做他该做的事，没有必要给体系增加更多压力。
毕竟还有阿尔维德·林德布拉德，他的潜力仍需要在第二个赛季得到确认——而没有什么比目前状态的劳森更好的衡量标准了。
真的，只有一个合乎逻辑的决定。
但说到红牛，你就是永远说不准，对吧？
英文原文
Still no contract for next year – but the New Zealander is making it almost impossible for Red Bull not to keep him for another season
Jolyon Palmer wasn't trying to be creative when he asked Liam Lawson about his future during F1 TV's live post-race coverage. It was simply a question anyone would ask – perhaps even Lawson himself. The sort of question you ask without really expecting an answer, more out of wonderment as to why the answer isn't already an obvious yes.
"Another race, another win, in the race that you were in, really, the midfield battle," the former Renault driver and now one of F1's top analysts put to Lawson after a couple of questions from his colleagues. And then added: "When are you going to be announced for next year?"
There shouldn't really be any questions about whether Lawson deserves to stay in F1, and with his current team. Any team on its way to securing the best result in its F1 history would surely have already tied down the driver responsible for the biggest share of its points. Any such team wouldn't want him to become impatient or feel insecure.
No one would be talking about Liam Lawson's future had he been racing for almost any other team and the only reason for a potential delay would probably be his management demanding better terms for their client. Were Lawson delivering these performances for another outfit, he'd probably be asking for more money, less social media time and no more easyJet flights.
But that's not the case. Because he is indeed racing for Racing Bulls. And he is a Red Bull driver. And nothing is ever straightforward when you are.
"I've no idea, man," Lawson laughed in response. "Honestly, at the moment, it's to a point where I'm not even really thinking about it. I'm just pressing on and enjoying the races, honestly."
And there's no reason to think Lawson is actually stressing about his unsettled future. He's been in this position long enough to stop wondering about the same questions outside observers are constantly asking about Red Bull's driver decisions.
Those on the outside, back in the winter of 2024, could have asked: why on earth does a guy with just 11 F1 starts get promoted? Or, a few months later: how the hell do you give the guy just two races – and then sack him? Or now: what else does this guy need to do to secure his seat for next season?
But for Lawson, it's probably just the norm. There's no reason to stress about it – whatever happens, happens. So he's just pressing on and enjoying the races, really. And it's going bloody well.
There's not much to tell about his race in Austin. Just like Kimi Antonelli's - what do you actually explain about the Italian's victory in Texas? There's really not a lot: perfectly executed, brilliantly delivered, controlled. You can think of another couple of adjectives – but there won't be much substance to attach them to. There wasn't much drama. He seemingly cruised to victory.
And Lawson did pretty much the same in the midfield.
He had a good qualifying session, reaching Q3 once again, and accepted the team's request not to go out in the final segment to help his team-mate, who had a grid penalty. But he was still ninth on the grid – effectively a midfield pole in modern F1.
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls, Pierre Gasly, Alpine, Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team
A very clean start followed. He kept Pierre Gasly behind going up the hill into Turn 1, then slotted in right behind the McLarens. He built a gap, made his pitstop and delivered a perfectly managed stint to the finish on hard tyres. No drama. No stress. Just execution.
"For us, it's been a very strong race, and a strong weekend," he told the media after the finish. "Executed well, so very very happy. And obviously going to the next few races, some interesting tracks. But the car has been working well, so it should hopefully work well there too."
He'd had a lot more stress on Thursday, performing his first proper live concert with his friends in Austin.
"I mean, today was like 10% of that," he joked in his conversation with Palmer and his colleagues.
Ninth was the best he could have achieved, with no retirements among F1's leading four teams. That's another midfield win for Lawson, who also comfortably leads the unofficial midfield championship this year.
Yes, sure, he had a couple of races with Red Bull, but who's to say he'd have scored significantly fewer points had he raced for Racing Bulls instead? Maybe a couple. Anyway, his 'championship lead' over Pierre Gasly is now 35 points – which is huge – and he looks likely to remain ninth in the standings until the end of the year.
There's no official title for being 'best of the rest', but it's usually a description of a very strong season.
Back in the day, when the Faenza team was still called Toro Rosso and run by a calm and quiet Austrian named Franz Tost, its goal almost every single year was to finish fifth in the constructors' championship. Tost declared it as a target almost routinely in his media appearances ahead of each new season – but the team never quite got there under his leadership.
This year could finally be the year!
The former Toro Rosso squad is now the only midfield team with more than 100 points, and Alpine doesn't look particularly close anymore. Especially when you consider just how quick and handy these Racing Bulls cars have become; and it's Lawson who's making most of the difference for Tost's former team.
So... why is he still not signed for next year?
It could be that it's just a formality, and Racing Bulls simply needs to finalise its 2027 plans for Nikola Tsolov before announcing Lawson's extension. But with Red Bull, you just never know. Part of the team's identity is to find the next Sebastian Vettel or Max Verstappen, and that sometimes means promoting juniors at the expense of established drivers.
It's happened many times in the past, and it will probably happen again. But if Lawson is shown the door after the year he's had, it would be one of the cruellest decisions in Red Bull's history of handling drivers.
There's absolutely no reason to rush Tsolov either. Yes, he's one of the main title contenders in F2, but it's not as though Red Bull desperately needs another superstar junior right now. With Max Verstappen's contract extended and Isack Hadjar doing exactly what he should be doing, there's no need to add more pressure to the system.
There's Arvid Lindblad, after all, whose potential still needs to be confirmed in his second year – and there's no better measuring stick than Lawson in his current form.
There's only one logical decision, really.
But with Red Bull, you just never know, right?
Motorsport.com ·
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