Lawson began the 2025 Formula 1 season alongside Max Verstappen after earning promotion from Racing Bulls, only to be replaced after difficult weekends in Australia and China.
The New Zealander crashed out of the Australian Grand Prix before qualifying last for both the sprint and grand prix in Shanghai, prompting Red Bull to return him to its sister team after just two rounds.
Lawson maintained publicly that he was fine when he arrived back at Racing Bulls, but Permane said those who had worked with him previously could see the experience had affected him.
“He didn’t really say much about it to start with, honestly, his head was down and he won’t thank me for saying this, because I think at the time, he was, ‘no, everything’s fine’, but you could tell,” Permane told F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast.
“We obviously knew him from the year before, we could tell he certainly wasn’t the same guy, and I don’t want to say we rebuilt him because that’s a little bit dramatic, but we just supported and helped him where we could.
“He works incredibly hard and he works incredibly well with his engineering team, and he did it.”
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Permane said Racing Bulls provided support throughout Lawson’s return, but credited the 24-year-old with driving his own recovery through his work in the simulator and alongside his engineering group.
“We’re there to help him, but he made a turnaround,” Permane said.
“He worked hard in the simulator, he worked hard off track and on track, and I think we saw that culminating with some really, really good performances.”
Lawson recently provided his own account of the demotion, revealing he had no warning he was about to lose the Red Bull seat despite rumours emerging during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend.
“That, at the time, was like a really hard thing to deal with,” Lawson told the High Performance Podcast.
He also admitted the criticism surrounding his performances made the period more challenging, with questions raised publicly about whether he deserved to remain in Formula 1.
Lawson attempted to focus on retaining a place on the grid rather than losing what he considered his dream opportunity, while Verstappen offered support privately following the decision.
Permane said he encouraged Lawson to remove outside distractions once his place at Racing Bulls for 2026 had been secured and concentrate entirely on his driving.
“What I said to him last year was, ‘forget anything outside of this’, especially after we confirmed him for 2026,” he said.
“I said, ‘there’s nothing that should be more important than this, don’t worry about this flight or that flight, or this hotel, or you want to go here’, I said ‘forget all that and just focus on this’.”
That approach has helped Lawson establish himself as Racing Bulls’ senior driver alongside rookie Arvid Lindblad this season.
Lawson has already scored 39 points, surpassing his entire 2025 total, and helped the team record consecutive double points finishes in Monaco, Barcelona, Austria and Great Britain.
“You can see that with him this year, he’s definitely done that,” Permane said.
“He’s laser-focused, it’s a bit of a cliché, but he is and I’m really pleased that you can see that in his driving.
“He’s much more aware of the car, I think he works better and closer with his engineers, he knows what he wants from the car, he’s able to drive it in a way to get the best out of the car.”
Permane said he believed Lawson’s adaptability has also played a major role in his progress, comparing his approach with drivers such as Verstappen and Fernando Alonso.
“I don’t think Fernando [Alonso] has a driving style, I don’t think Max [Verstappen] has a driving style,” he said.
“I think they just drive the car however it needs to be driven to go quickest.
“I think Liam is doing a little bit of that this year, he’s figuring out how to drive these cars, what’s the best way to get everything out of this car, and he’s doing that.
“I think he’s able to do that because he’s just concentrating on driving and he’s not worrying too much about the outside world.”
Lawson will receive Racing Bulls’ latest upgrades at the Hungaroring after Lindblad ran the new specification on his way to ninth in Belgium.
The New Zealander struggled for pace with the older package at Spa-Francorchamps and finished 12th, ending a run of five consecutive races in the points.
Racing Bulls heads to this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix equal with Alpine in fifth place in the constructors’ championship, with both teams sitting on 61 points.
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