Liam Lawson faces a mammoth task of going up against Max Verstappen at Red Bull in the 2025 Formula 1 season.
The Kiwi driver has finally been given a full-time seat in F1 after 11 Grand Prix for AlphaTauri – later Racing Bulls – in 2023 and 2024. Lawson has been promoted to Red Bull as Sergio Perez’s replacement after his sacking at the end of last year.
The seat next to Verstappen has become something of a poison chalice in recent years. No driver has come close to the Dutchman in equal machinery with Lawson’s predecessors all being dropped.
Heading into 2025, the 23-year-old will hope not to be the next. Karun Chandhok is worried Lawson might get burnt out at Red Bull after being thrown into the car so soon.
Pre-season testing was tough with the Milton Keynes-based outfit recording the lowest number of laps over three days in Bahrain. Lawson spun the RB21 on day one at turn three – Red Bull will hate the incident as teams can view the footage to see how their airflow works on the sidepod.
So long as the Kiwi driver can score more points than Perez did in 2024, he will be in good stead to perform in the future. But Christian Horner has reminded Lawson of the reality of his situation at Red Bull at the Australian Grand Prix.
Christian Horner tells Liam Lawson to ‘focus on himself’ and ignore Max Verstappen’s side of the garage
The Kiwi driver is already at a massive disadvantage compared to the other new full-time drivers in Melbourne. Lawson has never driven the Albert Park circuit before this weekend.
Furthermore, the RB21 appears to be behind its rivals at the front of the field. Helmut Marko says Red Bull are two tenths behind McLaren heading into the first race of 2025.
Marko believes the atmosphere at Red Bull has improved since Perez left and Lawson arrived. While the latter has great potential, he will be playing second fiddle to Verstappen – and Horner reminded him of that after Friday’s practice in Australia.
Speaking on The F1 Show, the Red Bull boss offered advice to Lawson ahead of going up against the four-time champion. Horner wants him to ‘focus on himself’ and ignore what is happening on the other side of the garage.
READ MORE: Who is Red Bull Racing F1 driver Liam Lawson? Everything you need to know
“I think mainly it’s just focus on himself. Almost ignore what’s going on with the other car, just focus on himself, on working with his engineers and extracting the best that he can,” he said.
“He’s got a steep learning curve. But everything that we’ve seen in the junior formulae, in the testing that he’s done with us. He’s got the ability to take that on and grow.
“So, we’ve just got to give him time.”
Christian Horner told Sergio Perez the same as he just told Liam Lawson during Red Bull future uncertainty
No F1 driver wants to hear the dreaded news that they will have accept being behind their teammate. At Red Bull, that will always be the case as long as Verstappen is in the team.
It is a reality Perez had to – or struggled to – come to terms with during his final few seasons at the Milton Keynes-based outfit. The Mexican was under immense pressure to keep his seat as he found it difficult to make regular Q3 appearances.
Red Bull opted to extend Perez’s contract midway through 2024 in the hopes it would improve his fortunes – if anything it got worse as he finished above 10th once in the final eight races.
READ MORE: Sergio Perez’s life outside F1 from net worth to nickname
During the Hungarian Grand Prix, Horner told Sky Sports that Perez would do himself a ‘favour’ by ignoring Verstappen and focusing on ‘his own performance – Lawson is now in the same boat before his Red Bull debut.
“We have a really open relationship. I sat down with him in the kitchen of my house and said: ‘Come on, what’s going on? Is there something else?’ And he was like: ‘No, I’m just overthinking things a bit too much,” said Horner.
“I think almost ignoring what’s going on on the other side of the garage will do him a favour which is the approach that he’s taking now. Just focusing on his own performance.”
