Red Bull's Christian Horner gives straightforward response for Max Verstappen's new teammate's below par start to the F1 Australian GP

Red Bull's Christian Horner feels Max Verstappen's new teammate Liam Lawson should be given enough time before we start issuing verdicts about the Kiwi's performances. Lawson's first day in the car was quite underwhelming as the driver was almost always near the bottom of the timesheets.

The Kiwi replaces Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen's teammate at Red Bull, but at the same time, he's also part of a long line of drivers that have been put alongside the Dutch driver only to get comprehensively outperformed. Since 2019, the Austrian team has placed 3 drivers alongside the 4-time F1 champion.

In 2019, it was Pierre Gasly whose performances meant that he was dropped by mid-season. Then Red Bull had Alex Albon, who struggled to keep up as well. In 2021, Sergio Perez joined Max Verstappen, and the Mexican played his role in helping the Dutch driver win his first F1 title.

However, as the years passed, the gap in performance between the two drivers continued to increase. For 2025, Sergio Perez has been replaced by Liam Lawson as Max Verstappen's teammate, and the first day of running was not ideal. Red Bull boss Christian Horner, however, feels that the Kiwi should be given time to get used to things within the team before we start judging him. Talking to Sky Sports, he said,

“Liam, it’s a big step up. Being Max’s team-mate is probably the toughest job in Formula 1. But he’s got the mental aptitude and strength of character to deal with that."

He added,

“He’s not been here before, I think he’s the only driver on the grid that hasn’t done some laps around this circuit. But he’s finding his feet and giving some very good feedback, he’s settling in nicely. We’ll see over the next few races.”

Max Verstappen's teammate on his first day in Australia

Talking to F1TV, Liam Lawson revealed that he did feel comfortable in the car in both FP1 and FP2 although the pace was just not there. The driver was, however, at odds with where things are not going their way, but was hoping to improve in a few areas to be in better shape for Saturday. He said,

“I felt comfortable in the car today, but it just wasn’t fast enough, so we have a lot of work to do overnight. Day one on a new track you are expecting to have work to do but not this much. We can’t really pinpoint why it’s been tricky out there so far, if we knew we could fix it a lot quicker."

He added,

"We need to pick it up on short run pace, but the long run pace wasn’t great either, so yeah, a lot to do. So, it will be a challenge for the Team, but we will aim to improve for tomorrow.”

Max Verstappen, on his part, was a bit disappointed as well with the first day of running, as it does appear that Red Bull would not be in contention for the win this weekend.