Max Verstappen’s relentlessness tests the “inner strength” of his teammates, says Red Bull’s chief engineer Paul Monaghan.

Verstappen will have a new teammate at Red Bull in F1 2025, with Kiwi driver Liam Lawson promoted into Sergio Perez’s vacated cockpit after 11 race weekends with the AlphaTauri/VCARB team over the last two seasons.

Paul Monaghan issues ‘be prepared’ warning

Perez had a very difficult 2024 season alongside Verstappen, scoring just over a third of the points the Dutch driver managed. While Verstappen claimed a fourth consecutive Drivers’ Championship, Perez’s inability to score regular points cost Red Bull any chance of defending its Constructors’ Championship as the Milton Keynes-based squad dropped to third behind McLaren and Ferrari.

Red Bull opted for change for this season, with the inexperienced Lawson being taken on board having compared favourably against the vastly more experienced Yuki Tsunoda during their 11 races together across 2023 and ’24.

A key facet of Lawson’s personality is that he harbours strong self-belief and mental strength that stand him in good stead as he lines up alongside Verstappen in the same car.

Not every driver can handle being teammates with the Dutch driver, with the likes of Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly wilting alongside him in 2019 and ’20 before Perez got the nod – only to go through his own sustained slump in ’24 after inconsistent years in ’22 and ’23.

Paul Monaghan has been with Red Bull for almost 20 years and has been a witness to the rise of Verstappen within the team and the effect he’s had on the drivers placed alongside him.

Speaking to the Beyond the Grid podcast, Monaghan shared advice for anyone who becomes a teammate of Verstappen, urging that driver to be able to keep their head in the face of sustained pressure.

Asked whether stronger performances can be achieved by simply accepting how good the likes of Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, or Michael Schumacher are, and whether that acceptance requires a driver to take a different mentality into such a partnership, Monaghan said, “If it helps you get the most out of yourself, then, intuitively, it makes sense, doesn’t it?

“If they are constantly worrying about a comparison with a teammate or what their teammate is doing, and they fail to get the best out of themselves and their car with their engineers, then yes, it’s been a detriment.”

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With Verstappen rarely having a bad day behind the wheel, Monaghan said any teammate of the Dutch driver must be mentally equipped to handle that.

“What you have to be prepared for is…  it’s true of, in my opinion, of both Max and Fernando in this relentless pursuit of the best they can be,” he said.

“That is, every day, every session, every lap – even if you lose one session, they’re back the next one, and they are on it.

“You have to be prepared for that. They do not have a bad day, and do not have a bad session.

“Well, they do on occasions, but they won’t admit it, it’s fine.

“If you’re prepared for that, and you can stand that, then it’s a bit like Kipling’s If poem, isn’t it?

“That comes back to the inner strength of the teammate, he has to get out of himself his best. And then, has to stand the judgment.”

With Perez having apparently been unable to eventually maintain his grit after the relentless battering he took by almost always trailing his teammate, Monaghan said the difference between the pair was minute.

“I wouldn’t want to be rude to Checo [Perez], but I’d say, in general, Max is a little bit quicker than Checo,” he said.

“For me, that’s not a controversial statement, [although] Checo may well be most upset with me. Half a second, on average.

“Most circuits have, pick a number, 20 corners, because it makes the maths easy, doesn’t it? Look at that as an increment per corner. It is minute, the difference, per corner – maybe pulls half a tenth in one corner. It borders on trivial, doesn’t it?

“Yet, it adds up through a lap. Max gets to the limit and stays that little bit closer to it, and doesn’t massively overstep it in qualifying when you overdrive the thing.

“If that’s the difference, then the average comes out as a number at the end – if that’s the objective measurement, so be it. I think there’s a little bit more to it, perhaps, but he’s pretty good, isn’t he?”

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