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INTERVIEW: Liam Lawson is ready to challenge Max Verstappen

29th January 2025
Ian Parkes

Being team-mate to Max Verstappen can be overwhelming – just ask Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, and Sergio Pérez, all of whom found themselves overshadowed by the now four-time Formula 1 champion.

So Liam Lawson faces a daunting task this year, although he at least has spent a considerable period of the past two seasons in an enviable position that should stand him in good stead.

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After initially holding his own against Verstappen, following the Dutchman's promotion from Toro Rosso to Red Bull in early 2016, Ricciardo – rightly or wrongly – felt that over time the then-teenager was being prioritised. It sparked a move to Renault, and the beginning of the end of Ricciardo's F1 career.

Gasly survived just 12 Grands Prix over the first half of 2019 before being jettisoned in favour of Albon, who performed admirably for the remainder of the campaign, but never found a rhythm through the Covid-hit 2020 season, and was demoted at its conclusion.

It resulted in Red Bull taking the rarest of decisions in exploring external options rather than promoting from within, and opting to hire Pérez. The Mexican had enjoyed the strongest year of his decade in F1 to date, finishing fourth in the standings, which included his maiden win in the Sakhir Grand Prix.

Whatever ideas Pérez may have had of challenging Verstappen, however, were soon dispelled in a 2021 campaign in which he played a supporting role to his team-mate's championship battle for the ages against Lewis Hamilton.

The die was cast from that season on, as Verstappen went on to thoroughly dominate 2022 and 2023, the latter to such an extent that although Pérez finished second in the Drivers' Standings – giving Red Bull its first one-two in its history – Verstappen's points tally was such that he could have won the Constructors' Championship on his own.

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A solid start to last year, with four trips to the podium in the first five Grands Prix, including three as runner-up, was enough to result in Red Bull offering Pérez a new one-plus-one deal in early June, with a guaranteed contract for 2025, and an option for 2026.

By that stage, though, Pérez had embarked on a dire run of form from which he never recovered, scoring a paltry 49 points in the closing 18 races, leading to the team negotiating its way out of the agreement it had signed six months previously.

Throughout that six months, speculation was rife as to whether the axe would fall on Pérez and (more pertinently) if so, who would be his replacement.

Ricciardo had made no secret of his desire to rejoin Red Bull, following his return to F1 in 2023 as replacement for the axed Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri. The Australian, however, all too often failed to rise to the occasion whilst with RB.

The team unceremoniously dumped the fan favourite after the Singapore Grand Prix, at which point the spotlight shifted to Lawson, who had thrust himself into the picture in 2023 when he admirably deputised for Ricciardo for five races after the latter broke a bone in his left hand. 

Lawson's performances caught the eye of Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko who, in his own inimitable style, had vowed after the cameo role that the New Zealander would soon be in F1 on a permanent basis.

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Handed the baton again following Ricciardo's exit, the suggestion was Lawson faced a shoot-out with RB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda for the remainder of the season. In his fourth season with the 'junior' team, the Japanese made it clear that he had long served his time in waiting and was finally worthy of his chance.

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner, along with Marko, thought otherwise. Despite only 11 Grands Prix to his name (in contrast to the 87 for Tsunoda), the duo opted for the more inexperienced driver.

"We obviously do a huge amount of analysis, and we have a lot of info available to us," said Horner, in explaining why Lawson was given the nod.

"Eleven races is a short amount of time. If you delve closely into his performances in qualifying, the margins to Yuki were very tight, and on race pace, he came out on average above Yuki, so there was very little to choose between them.

"But when you look and you consider that Liam is still only 11 races in, and he's already at that level, the potential for growth is significant. Coupled with that, what has really stood out with him has been his attitude and his ability to deal with pressure."

Referencing the rain-soaked São Paulo Grand Prix weekend, Horner added: "Brazil was an interesting one where all the rookies looked a little bit like rookies, but Liam didn't drop the car. He didn't make any mistakes. He looked a seasoned campaigner.

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"If you look at his other performances, he's agile as well. We put him in a DTM car for a year alongside Alex Albon. He was very quick in that. He races hard, and he's got broad shoulders, and I think you need that to be in that seat."

Horner has urged Lawson to put being team-mate to Verstappen to one side from when he first steps into the cockpit of the RB21.

"Checo, certainly for three of the four years, coped with that pressure and comparison very well," he added. "And I think Liam has the right character to be able to cope with the pressure of being Max's team-mate, and the expectations on him are very clear.

"We're not expecting him to beat Max. Max is a generational talent. The objective to Liam is to get as close as he can and bag as many points as he can so that we don't have a 285-point deficit between the cars."

The latter comment was a pointed remark to the gap between Verstappen and Pérez at the end of last season, and which cost Red Bull the defence of its Constructors' Title.

Lawson, though, has an advantage over Ricciardo, Gasly, Albon and Pérez that will, in part, help mask his inexperience: aside from his 11 Grands Prix over the past two seasons, as Red Bull's reserve he has had the opportunity to watch, listen, and study Verstappen intently.

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Over a race weekend when he was not in the cockpit of the AlphaTauri or RB, he was often viewed in the garage or on the pit wall. He will have pored over the data from practice, qualifying and Grands Prix, will know where and why Verstappen is strong, and he will have learned from that. Lawson could not have received a greater education    

“As a reserve, you get those opportunities to almost experience what it's like to be in F1 without racing,” said Lawson, in an interview with this writer. “To not do that and step in, I think it would be very, very tough. Some people do and they struggle.

“Being in the environment for two years, experiencing both teams - VCARB and Red Bull - that was a really good opportunity and something that really helped prepare me to step in.”

As to studying Verstappen, in particular, he added: “It’s invaluable to see exactly every single weekend, the feedback, the mindset as well, that Max has going into a season, into a race. It’s something that you can learn a lot from when you're watching.

“He obviously knows exactly what he wants from a car going into a session, or giving feedback on a session, he knows exactly what he wants from it. It’s very clear and descriptive. Then in a session, when you’re listening to how he's dealing with situations on track, it's all stuff like that that’s good to listen to.”

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As to whether he had applied Verstappen's methods to his own racing, he replied: “Yes, potentially. I don't try and have the same mindset because I'm not in his head, I don't know what he's thinking.

“It's more the feedback, what he’s dealing with, the way he talks to the team. When I sit there and watch it, it's clear to see how the team responds to what he talks about.

“You can see what is positive and what is negative, what they like, what they don't like. In that way, that's what I've more or less learned from.” 

We will see whether he has applied such learnings when the pressure on him increases immensely this year. A fascinating season awaits.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.

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