"In his mind, he replaces Max Verstappen": $50M worth former F1 driver on Red Bull Racing's latest signing

Jacques Villeneuve opened up about the mindset that Red Bull Racing's latest signing, Liam Lawson, would have against Max Verstappen. The Dutch driver has been a teammate killer of sorts, ever since Daniel Ricciardo moved on from the Austrian squad in 2018.

Verstappen has been teamed up with three different drivers and has dominated all. What's worse is that this often leads to pressure from being a part of Red Bull and then being replaced by the next.

It was Pierre Gasly who replaced Daniel Ricciardo in 2019. The French driver was replaced within six months by Alex Albon who was a part of Red Bull for 18 months until Sergio Perez replaced him in 2021. Perez himself has been replaced in 2025 by Liam Lawson, and all eyes are on the Kiwi when it comes to judging how much he can achieve in the same car as Verstappen.

Talking to Action Network, former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve felt there was still a lack of clarity on how good Lawson is. The Kiwi has not even run an entire season in the sport and is getting pushed into a competitive environment. The Canadian said:

"It's a big opportunity for Lawson, but we've seen before that drivers quickly collapse when they're put straight into the main squad. We'll see how strong he is mentally, as well as how good he actually is. We don't know yet. You can't take his Formula 2 season, Super Formula season, and races against Yuki Tsunoda as a benchmark."

He added:

"Contractually, Lawson is there to help Verstappen. But in his own mind, he is not. In his mind, he replaces Max. So he will try to be hard and fast. Hopefully, he will put Max under pressure and that will result in even better performances from Verstappen, in order to help the team move forward."

Liam Lawson would hope to be only a few places behind Max Verstappen

When it comes to putting a strategy together for the Kiwi, Jacques Villeneuve felt that Lawson would do well to continue finishing a couple or two places behind Max Verstappen.

If Lawson's able to accomplish that then unless Verstappen is winning the race, the gap in points is going to be much smaller. He said:

"If the car is not good enough for the win, Lawson will do well if he finishes one or two places behind Verstappen. That's all. When you win races, you score a lot of points. The difference between first and second place is big. If you finish third, fourth or fifth, the difference in points is very small."

With this being his first full season, it's hard to be sure what to expect from Liam Lawson. There is however a basic requirement that the driver shouldn't be too far behind Max Verstappen in terms of performance, something that his predecessor failed to achieve.