Liam Lawson has stepped back into the senior Red Bull seat for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, replacing Isack Hadjar after the French driver sustained a wrist injury.

The sudden call-up marks the New Zealander's first outing with the Milton Keynes-based outfit since his brief two-race stint in 2025, after which he was demoted back to sister team Racing Bulls in a direct swap with Yuki Tsunoda. Tsunoda will fill Lawson's seat at Racing Bulls for the weekend.

The 24-year-old enters Zandvoort in the form of his life, having scored points in six of the last seven Grands Prix to sit ninth in the drivers' championship. Speaking on media day at Zandvoort, Lawson revealed he was notified of the opportunity immediately after stepping off his flight following the summer break.

“I just landed on Monday from the break, being on holiday,” Lawson said. “I had a call, literally I hadn't even left the plane yet and I was speaking to Alan [Permane], and basically they let me know. The week quickly changed from what it was going to be to Red Bull prep.”

Navigating a compressed Sprint weekend

Lawson acknowledged that getting up to speed quickly in the RB22 will be a stern test, especially with Zandvoort hosting a Sprint format that leaves only a single practice session before competitive running gets underway.

“It's obviously not what I expected coming into this weekend, but it’s a good opportunity,” Lawson explained. “We've had quite a good season so far this year. For me, I'm just focused on trying to continue that this weekend, although it's in a different car. That's what I'm focused on.”

“It’s a Sprint weekend, so it's going to be a quick learning process tomorrow. But that's what we're focused on, that’s what we tried to do yesterday in the simulator. If we can try and speed up that learning process as much as possible, then that would help our weekend,” he added.

“Probably the new car [is the biggest challenge], but obviously everything else that comes with it. As challenging as it's going to be, it's also very exciting. I'm sure getting in the car at the start of practice is going to be quite foreign and take a bit of getting used to, but I honestly think trying to learn as much as I can through even the Sprint Qualifying and Sprint, and being as prepared for Quali on Saturday, that’s probably the target.”

No point to prove

Despite his demotion from the senior team the previous season, Lawson downplayed suggestions that returning to the front-running car felt like personal vindication.

“Honestly, it feels like a long time ago and it's such a different circumstance now as well, obviously now being one week,” Lawson stated. “I haven't really looked at it like that. For me we've had a really good year so far, and obviously I'm grateful to have been chosen for something like this. But I'm really focused on trying to get something out of the weekend. It would be great to do that and have a good weekend, but I'm sure it's going to be challenging.”

Lawson partners home favourite Max Verstappen at Red Bull for the weekend, following Verstappen's newly announced contract extension with the team through to the end of 2030.