Now confirmed as a fully fledged driver in a championship-contending car, Liam Lawson acknowledges that it’s his job to work with Max Verstappen, not against him
Red Bull senior adviser Dr Helmut Marko has revealed the gap the organisation will accept between Kiwi Liam Lawson and world champion Max Verstappen when the 2025 Formula One season begins.
Despite having only 11 grands prix of experience under his belt, Lawson has been promoted to racealongside Verstappen this year as the best prospect among Red Bull’s ranks.
Now, though, having secured the position he’s aimed for in his whole career, Lawson’s work is only getting started.
Partnering Verstappen is no mean feat. Besides Perez, the likes of Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Daniil Kvyat have all been trialled next to the now-four-time world champion, with none able to consistently hold their place.
In Lawson, though, Red Bull feel they’ve found their man. The Herald understands Red Bull’s internal evaluations have consistently found Lawson to be mentally stronger than both Gasly and Albon.
With those metrics on board, Marko has outlined exactly where Lawson will need to stack up against his teammate.
“He should be within three-tenths [of a second] of Max in both qualifying and in the race,” he told European outlet RTU.
“That should be enough to get points for the Constructors’ Championship. He should also steadily increase his performance – if possible.”
Three-tenths of a second per lap could be considered a tough ask for Lawson, given Verstappen’s record against his teammates.
Even though he was a valuable part of Red Bull’s Constructors’ Championship victories in 2022 and 2023, the 2024 season had Perez finish each race, on average, 19s behind Verstappen.
During his brief time at Red Bull, Gasly finished an average 0.89s slower than Verstappen per lap, before he was demoted just 12 races into the 2019 season.
Meanwhile, in his only full season at Red Bull, Albon finished an average 0.433s per lap off Verstappen, before he made way for Perez in 2021.
Liam Lawson will partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull for this year's Formula One season. Photo / Getty Images
However, when Lawson and Albon were teammates in the 2021 German DTM series, the Kiwi finished 97 points ahead and took three race wins to his partner’s one.
Speaking after his confirmation as a Red Bull driver at the end of last year, Lawson made it clear he was not intimidated by being paired with Verstappen, as the team look to reclaim the Constructors' Championship.
In 2024, the form of Perez – who finished a colossal 285 points adrift of Verstappen – can be pinpointed as the reason for Red Bull’s failure to win the title, as McLaren and Ferrari took first and second respectively.
That might prove to be a challenge, though, with Red Bull specifically designing its cars to be tailored to Verstappen, even if it comes at the expense of his teammates.
Though Verstappen’s future in the sport beyond his present contract is uncertain, Red Bull understand that asking Lawson to come in and better a world champion straight away isn’t going to be an entirely realistic target.
“Keeping in mind that within the team he is racing against what is currently the best Formula One driver, avoid what many other teammates of Max have done,” Marko said.
“You have to accept that he is the best and see how far you can get. But you can’t go in there thinking: ‘I am going to beat him’.
“That went wrong with all his teammates.”
The 2025 Formula One season begins in Melbourne on March 16, while Lawson’s first time behind the wheel of Red Bull’s RB21 car will come at the end of February at pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Alex Powell is an online sports editor for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016, and previously worked for both Newshub and 1News.
