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
Opinion by Andrew Potter
Andrew Potter is a New Zealand journalist based in the Middle East. He has covered Kiwi motorsport stories for more than 25 years.
The Kiwi has been driving for Red Bull’s development team
Fans have had a mixed response to the news, with some saying Lawson is undeserving of the Red Bull seat
Liam Lawson’s hiring by Red Bull Racing for the 2025 season is a hugely consequential moment for New Zealand sport, the first time a Kiwi has driven for a Formula 1 championship-winning team, alongside a world champion, since our own title-winner Denny Hulme partnered EmersonFittipaldi at McLaren in 1974.
But around the globe, Red Bull’s Lawson announcement was met with negativity and bile online.
The most popular comments found on the social media channels of Lawson, Red Bull Racing, and Formula 1 itself, suggested Lawson is hugely undeserving of the drive alongside Max Verstappen.
The common complaint? That the coveted Red Bull Racing seat should have gone to Lawson’s Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda instead.
It’s easy to see how this narrative has developed.
Tsunoda has been repeatedly rejected by the senior Red Bull team since entering F1 with the junior outfit Alpha Tauri in 2021.
As the 2024 season drew to a close and it was clear Sergio Perez was about to be fired, Tsunoda went on PR manoeuvres, taking every opportunity to spell out his case that he’d done more than enough to warrant promotion, emphasising his speed, calmness, and maturity.
Trouble is, the best informed people in this decision making process – the bosses at Red Bull Racing – don’t agree.
Tsunoda turned in a tidy 2024 season, scoring points at nine races. His performances helped end Daniel Ricciardo’s career, then he ever-so-slightly edged Lawson on pace and race results in the six events they went head to head. (Lawson scored twice, but was unlucky too, like in Abu Dhabi where a bungled pitstop ruined a likely points finish.)
But Tsunoda has taken his sweet time to get to this level, and it’s important to note his career timeline in comparison to Lawson’s.
Tsunoda, 24, has just completed his fourth full season. Lawson has had two fragmented mini-campaigns in 2023 and 2024. Tsunoda’s first three years in F1 saw him develop a reputation as inconsistent and error-prone, with regular public freakouts on the car-to-pit radio which, it seems, have made it impossible for Red Bull Racing leadership to take him seriously as a top-level driver.
Tsunoda still crashes regularly (twice during this year’s Mexican Grand Prix weekend, with another in practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix). Franco Colapinto, once seen as a potential Red Bull driver, crashed five times in his nine-race cameo in 2024. Lawson, by contrast, had a few robust moments on track this year, and a spin in Qatar, but otherwise could be relied upon to bring his car home in one piece.
Tsunoda enjoys the support of Honda, who supply engines to both Red Bull teams. This helped him break into Formula 1 in the first place, and has sustained his F1 career through some pretty depressing troughs in form.
So it’s reasonable to conclude that Red Bull has enough raw data and information on Tsunoda’s EQ to make the decision they have: that the Japanese driver is nearing his performance ceiling, and doesn’t have the mental toughness to be Verstappen’s teammate.
Liam Lawson will partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull for next year's Formula 1 season. Photo / Getty Images
The challenge of the job is immense. Ricciardo quit Red Bull for Renault, rather than face another season sharing a garage with Verstappen.
Neither Pierre Gasly or Alex Albon could get anywhere near Verstappen’s relentless pace and were booted out after six and 18 months, respectively. And now Verstappen has all but ended the career of Perez, a six-time winner with 282 starts.
The pressure on Lawson will be incredible. Global attention on the sport has exploded since Netflix’s Drive to Survive came along, and the will-they-won’t-they saga of Ricciardo’s sacking, Lawson’s promotion to Racing Bulls, Perez’s firing and now the announcement of the Kiwi joining the top team will be nothing compared to the granular analysis of Lawson’s every move in 2025.
He’ll be expected to regularly finish on the podium, and pick up the occasional race win. Red Bull would have easily won the Constructors’ Championship this year if Perez had been pulling his weight.
Should the season go badly – as online buzzkills have spent the day predicting it will – Lawson’s time in Formula 1 will be dead and buried.
Lawson is only 11 races into his Formula 1 career, but his potential, and ability to deal with being Verstappen’s teammate, are what Red Bull Racing are buying with his 2025 contract.
They clearly see a confidence and inner steel that evaporated from Perez, who was hired as Verstappen’s teammate because he was viewed as calm, unpolitical and able to deliver.
Given the job description as Verstappen’s teammate, and his erratic history, it’s perhaps surprising Tsunoda didn’t read the room earlier in the year and try for an opportunity in Formula 1 outside of the Red Bull family.
The best advice you can give to anyone even vaguely famous is: don’t read the comments section.
It’s safe to assume the best person equipped to shrug off the tsunami of online negativity which followed his signing to Red Bull Racing - and be motivated by it - is Liam Lawson himself.
And that’s the kind of character Red Bull will hope it’s getting, in its latest attempt to fill the most difficult seat in Formula 1.
