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Former VCARB boss stresses: 'Lawson shouldn't compete with Verstappen'
Liam Lawson has been given some advice by former Toro Rosso and Alpha Tauri boss Franz Tost. Although the Kiwi will be alongside Max Verstappen in 2025, he shouldn't try to compete with the Dutchman. Lawson has just 11 Grands Prix to his name but already will be competing for F1 wins against Verstappen. Franz Tost, who was in charge when Lawson debuted in 2023 as AlphaTauri team boss, thinks that the 22-year-old needs to be realistic.
Red Bull Racing opted for Liam Lawson over Yuki Tsunoda, who has spent four seasons at the sister team. According to Tost, the decision could've easily gone the way of the Japanese driver. "Both Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson deserved promotion," the Austrian told F1-Insider. The retired team boss can live with the choice of the more inexperienced New Zealander.
Lawson should not look at Verstappen:
Tost, who spent 18 years in the team principal role at Red Bull's sister team, believes that Lawson needs to find his feet at Red Bull: "The only thing I can recommend about Liam is that he should do his own thing and never try to measure up to Max Verstappen. Max is one of the all-time greats, comparable to Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna. His peak is far from being reached, and his potential is endless," he explained.
According to Tost, Verstappen continues to grow tremendously, as he did last season with elite levels of consistency despite his mid-season winning drought. Now, he has the self-confidence of a four-time champion. "If you start looking at his lap times, it will go wrong. That's why Liam has to think only of himself and work with Max to try to make the car better. Anything else would be fatal to him and doomed to failure," Tost says.
Max Verstappen has seen off multiple teammates in his time at Red Bull. After Daniel Ricciardo left at the end of 2018, Pierre Gasly was dropped mid-season in the following year. Alex Albon was unable to do a better job and was dropped after the 2020 season. Sergio Perez was poorer than Verstappen across their four seasons together as teammates, with Lawson hoping to do a better job than the previous three.
This article was written in collaboration with Ludo van Denderen
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