Liam Lawson has spoken out on his experiences of working with Max Verstappen, describing the four-time Formula 1 champ as “very real”.
Lawson arrived at Red Bull in 2025 with weighty expectations on his shoulders following his impressive run of races at Racing Bulls the previous season.
However, it became clear that all was not well just a few weeks into his tenure at the parent team, as he struggled to match the searing pace set by teammate Max Verstappen.
Qualifying 18th for the season opener in Australia before crashing out in the race sent alarm bells ringing, while a lowly 12th-place finish in Shanghai compounded the New Zealander’s struggles.
Red Bull dropped Lawson on the back of the opening two races, demoted him back to Racing Bulls, where he has since begun to rebuild his career.
His gap to Verstappen is often cited as one of the major reasons for his demotion; however, Lawson indicated the four-time world champion as “very real”.
“In general, Max was just always very real, like he’s somebody that at such a high-level, accomplished position that he’s in, it’d be very easy for him to not be like that,” he said on the High Performance podcast.
“And it’s not just with me; he seems to be like that with everybody. And I think Max is somebody who just wants to race cars and loves to talk about cars, loves to talk about racing.
‘Very supportive’
Lawson also gave an insight into Verstappen as a teammate, revealing that he provided support during his challenging period at the parent team.
“When I came in, I noticed he would always make an effort to, like, just acknowledge me and say hi and stuff like this, and when I first was a reserve, he knew I was racing F2 and said he’d come and ask me about it, ‘How’s F2 going? How’s the car? What do you know? How’s everything feeling?’
“I remember at the time it was just really cool, and he’s always been very real like that. So, and then when I went to Red Bull through all of it, he was very supportive. I won’t go too much into detail about it, but he was very supportive, very, very supportive.
“I spoke to a lot of people during that time, but I spoke to him about it, basically, and he was, he was very supportive.”
Teammates are a juxtaposition in F1 – every driver must beat their counterpart on the other side of the garage.
What Lawson has revealed is that the Verstappen in the garage is a different beast to the one seen on track.
READ MORE – Ex-F1 driver tells competitor to ‘f**k off’ in heated exchange after NASCAR debut