Liam Lawson maintains he is not thinking about the speculation linking Nikola Tsolov to his Racing Bulls seat, arguing he has been in F1 "long enough to see how things get stirred up" in the paddock.
The New Zealander is enjoying a strong start to the season, and sits tenth in the F1 drivers' standings on 39 points after nine rounds.
For reference, that is six points more than Yuki Tsunoda's best campaign, although the VCARB 03 is proving to be as competitive, if not more, than the Faenza-based team's 2025 challenger, and reliability at the start of the new era of F1 is low, relatively speaking.
But Lawson's performances have pulled Racing Bulls to within one point of Alpine in the fight for fifth in the constructors' championship nonetheless, and the 24-year-old is on an impressive run of five points-scoring finishes in a row.
The trouble, however, is that Red Bull junior driver Tsolov is in imperious form and tops the F2 drivers' standings.
The Bulgarian is on a run of three consecutive victories, having done the sprint-feature race double at Silverstone. The teenager is the first driver to go back-to-back-to-back in the series since Davide Valsecchi in 2012.
But even before that, there were numerous — albeit unfounded — reports that Tsolov had already been given the nod for 2027, although Lawson is paying little attention to that.
"It's honestly not even something I've really thought about," the Racing Bulls driver told media, including RacingNews365.
"Obviously, the summer break's normally a time when things are heavily considered, and we have a few more races until then.
"So, at the moment, I'm just focused on continuing to do what we've been doing.
"It's been working very well recently, and it'd be nice to go into that summer break with another good couple of races, but I think with Formula 1, I haven't been here that long, but I've been here long enough to see how things get stirred up, and it's not really something I've been thinking about."
Originally published by RacingNews365 —
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