{"id":28989,"date":"2024-12-28T16:53:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T21:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=28989"},"modified":"2024-12-28T17:05:19","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T22:05:19","slug":"lawson-told-he-will-have-to-accept-verstappen-superiority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/28\/lawson-told-he-will-have-to-accept-verstappen-superiority\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawson told he &#8220;will have to accept&#8221; Verstappen superiority"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Red Bull&#8217;s decision to promote <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/07\/liam-lawson-set-to-replace-sergio-perez-at-red-bull\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Liam Lawson<\/a> is arguably the most controversial development of 2024. The Kiwi will be under immense scrutiny against teammate Max Verstappen &#8211; but Lawson has been advised to manage his expectations.<\/p>\n<h2>Lawson warned against repeating mistakes of past teammates<\/h2>\n<p>Since <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/03\/helmut-marko-ricciardo-failed-to-deliver-necessary-performance\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Daniel Ricciardo&#8217;s departure from Red Bull<\/a>, the team have struggled to find a replacement.<\/p>\n<p>The Milton Keynes squad replaced Albon and Gasly with the same haste they promoted them &#8211; only to keep <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/08\/why-replacing-sergio-perez-will-be-a-headache-for-red-bull\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Sergio Perez<\/a> for too long in what became a painful final season.<\/p>\n<p>After four seasons of improvement at VCARB, Yuki Tsunoda was deemed by analysts as Red Bull&#8217;s best option for 2025.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Austrian team chose to put their faith in Liam Lawson.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his limited experience, Lawson has been entrusted with bringing the constructors title back to Milton Keynes.<\/p>\n<p>In the context of how Max Verstappen&#8217;s previous teammates have performed, the 22-year-old has a mountain to climb.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead to next year&#8217;s campaign, Helmut Marko has cautioned Lawson against having the wrong approach:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Gradually he will have to improve as much as possible,&#8221;<\/em> he told Sport.de<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But always keeping in mind that he is driving alongside the best F1 driver at the moment.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;In doing so, he should not get involved in the technical side of things &#8211; such as set-ups and strategies, for example. Something other teammates have done in the past.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Liam will have to accept that Verstappen is the best.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We will see how close he can get, but he should not get in the car with the aim of beating Verstappen.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;That has gone wrong with all his teammates.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"e9q01eiUQYpHtRfUQtf5xg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2188844820\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'e9q01eiUQYpHtRfUQtf5xg',sig:'7f6yefI3y2zsnbGt_OWSmj6eCvdqImVEgBkk6PAcprk=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2188844820',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>A blessing and a curse for Lawson<\/h4>\n<p>On paper, going up against Max Verstappen with less than a season of F1 experience is a daunting challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Red Bull risk making the same mistake with Lawson as they did with Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly.<\/p>\n<p>With that said, the Austrian team can be expected to give the Kiwi time to adapt.<\/p>\n<p>Considering that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/11\/29\/jenson-button-delivers-verdict-on-sergio-perezs-future\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Sergio Perez<\/a> was struggling to make Q3 and barely scoring points at the end of his Red Bull stint, Lawson does not have to perform miracles to be an improvement.<\/p>\n<p>Provided the 22-year-old can consistently score points and fight for top 5 finishes, Red Bull will see his promotion as a success.<\/p>\n<p>Having failed with their previous appointments to the main team, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/30\/christian-horner-confirms-red-bull-interest-in-franco-colapinto\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Christian Horner<\/a> and Helmut Marko are unlikely to backtrack on their latest decision so quickly.<\/p>\n<p>This means that Liam Lawson will be the beneficiary of some breathing space &#8211; at least in the opening rounds.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"6wvV-JvxR1xD2rtWCKjllA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2182675479\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'6wvV-JvxR1xD2rtWCKjllA',sig:'hGMUBAufSEsccE2xOUrE_grTVzo5BfFeTfBQl1tjgG0=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2182675479',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Red Bull running out of options<\/h4>\n<p>Assuming that Red Bull continue to overlook Tsunoda, there won&#8217;t be any obvious alternatives anyway.<\/p>\n<p>It is also feasible that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/13\/yuki-tsunoda-red-bull-divided-over-the-24-year-olds-future\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Yuki Tsunoda runs out of patience<\/a> and looks elsewhere on the grid in 2025,<\/p>\n<p>Before Red Bull activated their option to extend Tsunoda&#8217;s VCARB contract, he was the recipient of interest from across the paddock.<\/p>\n<p>Should the Japanese driver find an opening for 2026, Red Bull will be scrambling to fill both their teams.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this, unless there is a complete U-turn on their Tsunoda stance, the Milton Keynes squad might have no choice but to keep Lawson at the team.<\/p>\n<p>If Red Bull want another year of a driver merry-go-round, they are unlikely to replace Lawson easily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Red Bull&#8217;s decision to promote Liam Lawson is arguably the most controversial development of 2024. The Kiwi will be under immense scrutiny against teammate Max Verstappen &#8211; but Lawson has been advised to manage his expectations. Lawson warned against repeating mistakes of past teammates Since Daniel Ricciardo&#8217;s departure from Red Bull, the team have struggled [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":25647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,465,610,78],"class_list":["post-28989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1-news","tag-helmut-marko","tag-red-bull-racing"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28989"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29038,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28989\/revisions\/29038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}