Helmut Marko delivers fresh blow to Liam Lawson with Racing Bulls verdict

The F1 future of Liam Lawson continues to hang in the balance despite a stellar run of results for the New Zealand star.

The 24-year-old star has been in terrific form recently, consistently proving the 'best of the rest' outside the top four teams and the star in the sport's brutal midfield battle.

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Lawson's latest supershow came in the US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, when he produced a flawless drive to claim P9 in the final standings.

Recent races have only increased Lawson's stature, including a three-race run where he moved up to Red Bull to deputise impressively for the injured Isack Hadjar.

Despite all this evidence on track, Lawson's Racing Bulls team still have not confirmed their driver lineup for 2027 - with the Kiwi and young British rookie Arvid Lindblad waiting to find out if they will be retained.

The main threat to Lawson comes from another Red Bull Junior Team prodigy in the shape of 19-year-old Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov. He currently sits just seven points behind Brazilian wonderkid Rafael Camara in the F2 standings for 2026.

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Marko gives verdict on Lawson vs Tsolov for 2027 seat

Former Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko - responsible for bringing so many young talents through to F1 (including a certain Max Verstappen) knows which way he would vote.

Speaking to Austrian outlet Krone, Marko explained: "I agree with a saying by [late Red Bull co-founder Dietrich] Mateschitz: ‘We don’t buy stars, we make stars.’

"We’ve always looked for our own drivers who can win a Grand Prix. Apart from a few exceptions, it’s worked.

"In keeping with this philosophy, the difficult decision between Liam Lawson and Nikola Tsolov at Racing Bulls should actually go in Tsolov’s favour."

Only three seats still open on 2027 F1 grid

There are only three seats still open on the 2027 grid - those two at Racing Bulls plus the one alongside rookie Camara at Haas. Young Brit Ollie Bearman remains favourite for that role.

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Written by

Graham Shaw - Consultant Editor

Digital sports leader with 30 years of senior level experience running global brands. Built sportinglife.com to be a behemoth in the UK as well as being in charge of the Planet Sport network of sites including planetf1.com, football365.com, teamtalk.com and planetrugby.com. Then grew goal.com to be the world's biggest soccer website in 18 languages and 37 territories. Was GM of Portals for Perform Group (now DAZN) with overall responsibility for sportingnews.com, spox.de and voetbalzone.nl.

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