F1: Racing Bulls Should Confirm Liam Lawson's Seat for 2027

Honestly, what are the Racing Bulls waiting for?

Why haven't they confirmed Liam Lawson as their driver for 2027?

With Arvid Lindblad exceeding expectations as a rookie, he's already a lock for one of the seats next year. The other seat is now a competition between Lawson and the up-and-coming Formula 2 driver Nikola Tsolov.

And frankly, the battle isn't even close. First, let's look at the numbers.

Of the Racing Bulls' 100 championship points so far, Lawson has accounted for 62. That's a 24-point lead over his teammate, which is big when your car is in the midfield. 

Moreover, the Kiwi driver has finished in the points in 12 of the 17 races we had this season. Again, that's a big thing for a midfield driver.

Plus, Lawson's mega performance in the last two weekends has given the Racing Bulls every reason to retain his services beyond this year.

In the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Lawson took advantage of the chaos in front of him and took the checkered flag in P7, ahead of Lindblad's P10 finish.

Then, he took matters into his own hands in Singapore and outpaced his teammate in every session. First, Lawson qualified for the Sprint Race in eighth place, way ahead of Lindblad, who unfortunately exited in Q1. Lawson did not waste his chance to score some important points for the team, finishing the Sprint in P5 to produce four points.

Finally, Lawson pipped his teammate again and qualified one spot ahead of his teammate for the main race. Lindblad had a poor start to the Grand Prix, tumbling down from P10 to P13 into Turn 1. He finished the race in P15.

Meanwhile, Lawson would finish in seventh place, scoring six more points for the Racing Bulls. In a Sprint weekend where his teammate failed to score a single point, the Kiwi driver single-handedly carried the team and increased their fifth-place lead to 32 points over Alpine, their nearest midfield rivals.

In the middle of the year, Lawson was tapped as the replacement driver for the injured Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar. It's very difficult for a racing driver to get used to a new car, much more in the first year of a new set of regulations.

But he scored points in his first drive for Red Bull, finishing seventh in the main race at Zandvoort. Lawson did struggle in Monza, but bounced back with a sixth-place finish in Madrid. 

Lawson's brief three-race stint with Red Bull was a success, showing that he can absolutely become a driver for a top F1 team.

Racing Bulls should have already confirmed Lawson as their 2027 driver. He has carried them in their midfield fight against Alpine, and his short stint with the main Red Bull team showed how vastly improved his skills are. 

Tsolov surely has the talent to join the F1 grid, but then again, there are only 22 seats available every year. 

And Lawson showed that he fully deserves one of those seats.