"Big opportunity" to learn from Verstappen in first full season

Liam Lawson believes it would be tough to expect him to beat Max Verstappen immediately on joining Red Bull, and instead will use a “big opportunity” to exploit his team-mate’s knowledge and experience to boost his own Formula 1 skills.

Red Bull signed Lawson to replace the waning Sergio Perez, as the Mexican suffered a dismal 2024 after struggling to get a foothold with last year’s RB20 car. Perez’s difficulties set the team back in the race for the constructors’ championship, and so the team elected to switch drivers.

Lawson, who only has 11 F1 races under his belt, beat former RB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda to the seat; despite being set for his first full season, the Kiwi anticipates that he’ll immediately be compared to Verstappen by those inside and outside the championship.

In his assessment of his situation ahead of his first race for Red Bull, Lawson said that his plan for the year was to tap into Verstappen’s feedback and data, and attempt to learn from that to start matching the four-time champion.

“It’s just a big opportunity to have somebody like Max [to learn from]; when he came into the sport [he] was already very, very fast; in 10 years he’s won four world championships, and he’s very experienced,” Lawson said.

“I think that’s more of an opportunity than anything for me coming in here in effectively my first time starting a season, doing a full season – to have him as a team-mate to learn off is massively valuable.

“I think I just need to look at it that way and take advantage of that more than anything.

Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing RB21, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB21

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“We all believe we’re the best deep down, and obviously I have that self-confidence, but also realistically where I am coming in now against somebody who’s been 10 years in this team and won four championships, then it’s not really fair for me to expect myself to come in and beat somebody like that off the bat.

“For me it’s about using him to get better and to develop as quickly as possible and get towards that goal of winning as fast as possible.”

Lawson explained that his first experiences with the Red Bull RB21 were encouraging, although admitted that there was little to go on given the paucity of running in pre-season testing.

After testing, Verstappen had underlined that there were areas of the car that he felt needed improvement, and Lawson felt that their feedback was aligned on which direction the car needed to go.

“It feels good. Obviously Max is gonna have a much clearer indication because from what he’s driven in the past as a reference,” the Kiwi added.