Liam Lawson is stepping into the “hardest job in sport” if Christian Horner is to be believed and the track record of Max Verstappen’s team mates would tend to bear this out. Only Daniel Ricciardo has been able to beat his Dutch team mate consistently, but then a young Max was yet learning his trade.
The New Zealand driver who has stepped into the shoes of Sergio Pérez has a big ask ahead of him. Across the four seasons in which Verstappen has won his drivers’ titles, the experienced Mexican driver won just five Grand Prix and came runner up inn the drivers’ title race once.
Meanwhile Max was winning 53 Grand Prix and even when Checo finished second to him in the championship he was more than 300 points behind the world champion. Red Bull attempted to inspire Perez early last summer by handing him a two year extension deal to race with the team, yet Sergio’s form continued to decline with him finishing eight behind all the drivers for the other top three teams.
How do you solve a problem like Max’s team mate?
The inevitable came just days after the season finale in Abu Dhabi where Red Bull announced they were parting company with their Mexican driver. Meanwhile Liam Lawson has racked up eleven Grand Prix weekend starts across the past two seasons.
His promotion for the final six rounds to the V-CARB team saw him replace the deflated Daniel Ricciardo. Lawson lost 6-0 in qualifying to his team mate Yuki Tsunoda yet surprisingly got the call ahead of the Japanese driver to the full time seat this season alongside Verstappen.
Prior to Perez, there was Alex Albon who was given a season and a half before exiting the doors in Milton Keynes. Before him it was the turn of Pierre Gasly who managed just twelve Grand Prix weekends before he returned to the Red Bull sister team to be replaced by Albon.
As Horner implies, being Max’s team mate is certainly the toughest job in Formula One. Yet whoever takes this role on knows that Red Bull – even if not dominant – will deliver them a race winning car at some point during the season. And for most of the F1 drivers, a Grand Prix win is their championship moment.
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Perez had much more leeway than Gasly
And it appears the attitude of the Red Bull management is changing in terms of their expectations for the driver alongside Verstappen. When Gasly was dropped after 12 races inn 2019, he was 117 points behind his team mate.
Come 2024 and twelve races in, Sergio Perez was 137 points behind Max and was offered a new contract. There now seems to be a clear understanding that Max is in a league of his own and expecting his team mate to deliver on the same level, is unrealistic.
On the flip side, if Max is winning races and championships it is not acceptable for his team mate to finish last amongst the other drivers in the other top three teams, which is where Perez found himself last year. After all the prize money the team receives and the bonuses for all the employees is based on the constructors’ championship and Red Bull want that back desperately.
With the huge rule change coming in 2026, there is an argument Red Bull wold prefer to peak after the British Grand Prix when the next six months tranche of aerodynamic testing allowances are calculated, and so the pressure on Lawson may be somewhat diminished this year.
Red Bull lower their expectations
And Lawson appears to ‘dropped on’ somewhat as expectations may be reduced on Red Bull’s ‘ideal’ performance from a team mate of Max. Christian Kleine reports the change in mentality when speaking to RacingNews365.
“The leadership at Red Bull Racing has made a big turnaround in terms of putting pressure on the driver next to Verstappen in the team, so starting this year Lawson,” says Klein.
“He will have to collect points constantly, so that one doesn’t have to struggle so much in the Constructors’ Championship like last year. There are millions to be earned there and so it is important for Red Bull Racing to do better in that championship this year.”
The problem for Lawson may well be in his qualifying efforts. In the final year of the current set of car design regulations, the teams should be even closer in terms of one lap performance than they were in 2024. This is where Perez struggled with an average grid position last season of 9.33. Verstappen even though he didn’t have it all his on way managed to retained an average start position of 3.54
No real comparison for Lawson
Perez in fact usually made progress during the races with an average finishing position of 7.90 (Max 2.96). Yet as we saw in 2024, qualifying was not Lawson’s strength and it may be here he pays the price. Despite not being a rookie, Klein argues that Red Bull will “give Lawson time and hope that he can compete for podium spots during the season.
“To achieve that, they will put less pressure on Lawson and give him more space. That will be good for him and ultimately for the team. It doesn’t make sense for anyone to push the guy too much, not for him and not for the team. There has to be peace and the team will create that for him,” concludes the former racing driver.
The only real measure for both Red Bull and Liam Lawson is how he stacks up against Max when compared to his predecessor. Yet Perez started the 2024 season well and following the Chinese Grand Prix he’d racked up 85 points and sat second 25 points behind Verstappen. It was the next 19 rounds where he scored just 67 points which led to Checo’s demise.
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So even year on year direct comparisons in the early season do not reflect the season long contribution Lawson’s predecessor brought to the team. It will be probably better to compare Liam’s performances to the final averages across the year which were delivered by Perez.
The problem for Lawson is not merely that his team mate is Max Verstappen, but that amongst the top eight drivers only Kimi Antonelli has less F1 experience. So again if in the hands of Verstappen, the Red Bull is beating George Russell in his Mercedes repeatedly, then Lawson should be beating Antonelli, given the relative equipment and experience between the pair.
With six full time contract rookies joining F1 this year, there will be plenty of interest in how each of them progress. Lawson has the highest profile role amongst them followed quickly by Mercedes young Italian star.
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Albon also had more leeway than Gasly, albeit less than Perez, so among the three, Perez had the most by quite a lot.
Lawson should indeed at the very least be able to out-perform Antonelli.