Liam Lawson has admitted that challenging new Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen will be one of his toughest tasks during the 2025 Formula 1 season, Afrosport reports.
The New Zealander moved from sister Red Bull team Racing Bulls after Sergio Perez was dropped by the senior team at the end of 2024 following a string of poor results that saw the Austrian team finish third in the constructors’ championship behind Mclaren and Ferrari.
Lawson is the first teammate that Verstappen is younger than and will be starting his first full season in F1.
He will however have the tough task of trying to outpower the four-time world champion, something his previous teammates Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Perez all tried to do without any success.
“It’s a great opportunity, the biggest opportunity I’ve ever had,” Lawson said. “I think it just depends on how you look at it.
“Max is extremely successful in the sport but coming in knowing the team’s goal of winning the constructors’ [title] and getting back on top, that’s really what I’m here to help achieve.
“And if we’re doing that, I know that I’m doing my job.”
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He added: “As fast as Max is, I get access to everything he’s doing so from a learning opportunity it’s also massive. There’s really nobody better to learn off than him.
“I don’t expect to come in and be the best. Obviously, we all believe that we are the best. In any top-level sport, you can’t go into a match or a game and think that the person [against you] could be better than you. We all believe we are, and I do, but going up against guys who have done eight or nine seasons of Formula 1 … I don’t expect to come in and beat somebody like that off the bat.
“For me it’s about progressing towards that goal of winning. I definitely have enough of that self-belief.”
Lawson will be hoping to make a good impression when the F1 season commences at the neighbouring Australian Grand Prix on March 16.
