Former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve has delivered a brutal verdict about Red Bull driver Liam Lawson, accusing him of being “worse than [Sergio] Perez right now.”

Lawson has found it challenging to adapt to Red Bull, and his future with the team is already in doubt.

Liam Lawson faces “worse than Perez right now” verdict

The 2024 F1 season was inundated with Red Bull Racing drama regarding who was fit to race at the team alongside Max Verstappen.

The season kicked off with Mexican racer Sergio Perez in the seat, even going so far as to sign a contract extension — but his downturn in performance soon after called his future into doubt.

Red Bull seemed to be evaluating VCARB driver Daniel Ricciardo as a potential replacement, but Ricciardo’s own performances slipped. The Australian was dropped after Singapore in favor of Liam Lawson, and it was Lawson who would go on to take Perez’s seat after he was dropped after the close of the season.

But Lawson seems to be finding it hard to adapt. In the season opener in Australia, he qualified 18th and crashed out of the race, while teammate Max Verstappen qualified third and finished second.

For the sprint race ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, Lawson qualified 20th compared to Verstappen’s second-place start. Verstappen would finish third, Lawson 14th.

And in qualifying for the Grand Prix proper, it was more of the same: Verstappen secured a third-place start, with Lawson set to start 14th.

It is not the performance the Kiwi would be hoping for.

Jacques Villeneuve joined the F1TV crew during the sprint race pre-show, where a natural topic of conversation was Max Verstappen.

While Verstappen did well to place his Red Bull on the front row, many pundits have observed that the car’s balance is a disaster, and that there’s going to be plenty of work to be done in order for the team to return to its once-dominant pace.

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But the F1TV crew did acknowledge that, at the moment, Verstappen is the only driver on that team capable of contributing to development, as Liam Lawson continues to struggle.

“He needs a teammate,” Villeneuve said of Verstappen.

He then turned his attention to Liam Lawson: “I mean, it’s worse than Perez right now, and this car needs to evolve, needs to improve, and you cannot do it alone.”

That provided an opportunity to reflect on the cutthroat nature of Red Bull Racing as an organization.

“It’s also not the right team to have a bad weekend in, because Helmut Marko doesn’t like it,” Villeneuve said.

“He really pounds on his drivers. He wants them to be strong mentally, and if you don’t cut it, he chops you.

“They know that. It’s a tough space to be in.

“In another team, he would be protected better.”

But Lawson isn’t in another team. He races for Red Bull, and these past two weeks, he’s been roundly outperformed by members of the Racing Bulls junior team.

Perhaps the only saving grace for Lawson is the fact that Red Bull is “running out of drivers in their pool,” Villeneuve observed.

“That’s the issue. Because even on Isack Hadjar, [Marko] was very rough on him last weekend. Isack was in tears when he crashed, and Helmut reacted really badly to that. So it just put more pressure.”

It allowed the former F1 champion to consider the impact of Red Bull’s ever-evolving driver cycle.

“Those drivers are very young,” Villeneuve observed.

“They might not be ready for F1, they might not be strong enough for F1 yet, and if you put Helmut Marko in the mix, it’s either, you become strong really quickly, or you’re done.”

Liam Lawson will want to be strong.

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