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 Luke Slater
Luke Slater is a digital sports production journalist at The Telegraph.
THREE KEY FACTS
Liam Lawson’s average qualifying position is the worst on the Formula One grid.
Lawson had 11 grands prix under his belt before being promoted to the Red Bull team.
Liam Lawson is just two grands prix into his Red Bull career and is already at risk of losing his seat.
When pushed on whether he might be replaced for the next race at Suzuka, team principal Christian Horner refused to confirm the Kiwi’s place, insteadtalking of “tough weekends” and “the media being on his back”. After a woeful weekend in Shanghai, Lawson could become Max Verstappen’s shortest-lived teammate.
It is a sorry situation for a young and promising driver. His average qualifying position so far is 19.3, the worst of anyone on the grid. Verstappen has qualified on average third, second-best of the 20 drivers. Lawson’s three races have all ended pointless while Verstappen is second in the standings.
But it is Red Bull and not the 23-year-old Lawson who should shoulder the blame for the situation. How could they not see the enormous risks in signing him for 2025 when he had just 11 grands prix over two seasons at their junior team under his belt?
It is almost unfathomable. Even Verstappen, one of F1’s greatest-ever drivers and one of the most naturally talented men to ever grasp a wheel, had twice the experience of Lawson when he was promoted in 2016. Red Bull might be one of the most successful teams in F1 history and Horner and Helmut Marko, who oversees the young driver programme, deserve credit for that. But signing Lawson is not the decision of a serious racing team.
Lawson being this far adrift of the front early on was always a risk. It is staggering that, having promoted him with such little experience in the first place, they are considering not giving him the time he needs to adapt and adjust. They have left him hideously exposed.
It must be galling for Lawson that Horner is refusing to publicly back him for the Red Bull seat after just two rounds. Especially so given that he lost significant time in the car at both the pre-season test in Bahrain and the opening round in Australia, through no fault of his own.
He was then thrown straight into a sprint weekend with a single hour of practice and suffered further pain. Lawson has been open, accountable and honest about his performances so far. Whatever his fate, it is unlikely we will see the same accountability from Red Bull’s leadership.
Liam Lawson in the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race. Photo / Red Bull
It did not have to be like this. Lawson was not the only option to replace the ailing Sergio Pérez. In fact, he was probably the third-best. Carlos Sainz, out of contract at Ferrari and a multiple race winner, should have been signed. Even Yuki Tsunoda, after his fourth and best season in 2024 at Red Bull’s junior team, would have been understandable. Instead, Red Bull assessed that Lawson was their best option to drive a problematic car and one in which Pérez, with all his experience and skill, sank like a stone.
The problems with the current Red Bull car, developed to Verstappen’s needs and wants, are well documented. Verstappen has managed to get the best out of it, but the optimum is often simply a place somewhere in the top six, rather than on the highest step of the podium. The Dutchman is a rare talent but more than that, he has the tools to deal with this car. Lawson does not.
Did Red Bull even give Lawson the support he needed in the first place? Look at the thousands of miles that teenage rookie Kimi Antonelli was given by Mercedes in the Testing of Previous Cars programme. True, Lawson had useful actual racing experience after replacing Daniel Ricciardo at RB. Yet a handful of outings in a midfield car is hardly comparable to lining up alongside the defending champion at a team that has ambitions to win both championships.
Red Bull should have signed Sainz
Red Bull had their reasons for overlooking Sainz and Tsunoda and picking Lawson, but they are not sound ones. Sainz and Verstappen were teammates at Toro Rosso in their debut seasons a decade ago and Marko described their relationship at the time as “toxic”. Much has changed since then and both have more than 200 grands prix to their name. It is hard to think that signing Sainz would be a net negative for Red Bull.
Lawson was also thought to have more potential than Tsunoda, whose manner in the cockpit has verged on aggressive. The Kiwi’s combative racing in the final rounds of 2024 would have been a positive, especially given how meekly Pérez surrendered so often. But is that enough?
The bottom line is that everything at Red Bull is geared towards Verstappen. In many ways, that is fair enough. Yet anything that has a hint of disrupting that is off the table. Marko disparagingly referred to Alpine’s Jack Doohan as a C-rate driver and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto (last year’s F2 champion, no less) as a B-rate driver. That is ironic, because Red Bull are seemingly averse to hiring A-grade drivers alongside Verstappen. A balance was struck for a while with Pérez before his position became untenable last year. Lawson is currently making even the Mexican’s worst performances look respectable.
It will be Tsunoda who surely switches seats with Lawson, if and when Red Bull make that decision. Yet he will be going in with very little useful experience of a car that has proved so troublesome. Red Bull have been here many times before. Until Verstappen departs, they will probably be here again.
