Liam Lawson back to the grid at Miami after 35-day gap with upgraded Racing Bulls
Liam Lawson will be back in a Formula One car this weekend for the first time in five weeks, and the Hastings driver says he is more than ready for the wait to end. The 24-year-old returns to the grid at the Miami Grand Prix, the fourth round of the 2026 championship, after an unscheduled 35-day gap that was forced on the sport by the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian races during the Iran war. For Lawson and his Racing Bulls team, the upside has been a longer-than-usual run on the simulator and an extra fortnight to bolt new parts onto a car that has already proven faster than many in the paddock expected.
Lawson has used the break to fly home to New Zealand for training, and to spend time at the team’s factory in Faenza in northern Italy. Speaking ahead of the trip to Florida, he told RNZ he was “super pumped to get back to work in Miami now though” and that “it’s a place I love a lot and the energy and atmosphere is amazing.” He added that the squad had been “working hard back at the factory to prepare for the Sprint weekend, so we’re looking forward to getting back on track with some upgrades too.” Miami is the first of six Sprint events on the 2026 calendar, meaning Lawson will face two qualifying sessions and two races on the same Hard Rock Stadium street layout, and only an hour of practice to get on top of a circuit that punishes any mistake.
The momentum he carries into the United States is more positive than the standings might suggest. Lawson sits tenth in the drivers’ championship on ten points, but those points have come in a hurry, with finishes in the Shanghai Sprint, the Shanghai Grand Prix, and at Suzuka. Three top-ten results in his last two race weekends have lifted Racing Bulls to a surprise seventh in the constructors’ table, only two points behind their senior partner Red Bull. The new 2026 power unit and chassis regulations were expected to scramble the order, and so far they have, with Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli leading the title race on 72 points and several established names well off the pace.
That broader reset is the context for Lawson’s quietly strong start to the year. After his bruising 2025, when he was demoted from Red Bull back to the junior team after only two rounds, Racing Bulls boss Alan Permane has been openly pleased with the way Lawson has settled. Speaking to Formula1.com after the Japanese Grand Prix, Permane said the team was “looking forward to a break now with some good upgrades to the car planned for Miami.” The package was originally scheduled to debut in Bahrain, and the cancelled Middle East rounds mean both Lawson and his 18-year-old British rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad will roll out the new floor and bodywork at the same time, rather than one driver getting them first.
Whether the upgrades close the small but persistent gap to the Ferrari-powered cars is the question the team has been wrestling with all month. Racing Bulls have struggled with off-the-line starts under the new regulations, and the long Miami run from the lights to the first braking zone, all the way down what the drivers call the back straight past the stadium, is exactly the kind of place where a slow getaway is punished. Permane has said the upgrades target downforce rather than power, which suggests the team is trying to make the car kinder to its tyres in the hot, humid Florida conditions, where surface temperatures regularly climb past fifty degrees on Sunday afternoons.
Lawson’s own history at the Hard Rock Stadium circuit is short and unkind. On his only previous visit, in 2025, he qualified poorly, finished thirteenth in the Sprint, and was forced to retire from the Grand Prix after early contact damaged his floor. The track, looped around the home of the Miami Dolphins NFL team, has gained a reputation as one of the calendar’s hardest to pass on, with long flat-out sections broken by tight, slow corners that reward braking stability over outright speed. Sprint weekends compress the learning curve, and Lawson’s task is to deliver a clean Friday qualifying lap before the points start to be handed out on Saturday morning.
The wider Kiwi interest in Lawson’s season has rarely been higher. He is the only New Zealander on the grid this year, and his three points-paying weekends in a row are the strongest start to a Formula One season any New Zealand driver has put together since Brendon Hartley’s full season with Toro Rosso in 2018. With six Sprint weekends ahead, an upgraded car under him, and a team that has so far refused to slip out of contention, the long mid-season gap could turn out to be one of the more useful breaks of his career, provided the new floor does what the wind tunnel suggests it will do.
Practice for the Miami Grand Prix begins on Friday evening New Zealand time, with the Sprint race on Saturday and the Grand Prix in the early hours of Monday morning. Coverage will be live on Sky Sport, and Lawson is expected to face media in the United States on Thursday afternoon local time, his first proper press session since Suzuka.
Will the upgraded Racing Bulls give Lawson a real shot at a top-six finish in Miami, or is a steady points result the realistic ceiling at this stage of the season? Have your say in the comments below.