It's being reported that Lawson will be paired with a new race engineer this year. Unfortunately it's not Pierre Hamelin but some chap named Alexandre Iliopoulos. I believe not all race engineers are created equal and can have a measurable impact on a driver's fortunes. Hadjar definitely benefited from having Hamelin and that side of the garage in his camp and it's interesting to speculate what might have been if Red Bull had made the correct decision with Lawson and Tsunoda at the beginning of 2025.

Without having seen Iliopoulos in action yet Hamelin is easily the best race engineer Racing Bulls have, a race winner with Gasly at Monza. With both VCARB drivers now getting a new engineer this season it is disappointing that Lawson's seniority in the team didn't allow him to be partnered back with Hamelin. It would be interesting to know the reason Desiderio has been moved aside. He and Lawson seemed to work together okay, certainly better than the short-lived Lawson/Wood partnership at Red Bull (Hadjar is going to be in for a shock after working with Hamelin).

Anyway, guess we will soon see what happens. Lawson will need to belt Lindblad this year to continue his F1 career and that may have been made slightly more difficult by the Brit getting the better RE.