Max Verstappen’s support helped Liam Lawson through brutal Red Bull exit

Dissecting his Red Bull ousting, Liam Lawson has spoken of the support he received from Max Verstappen not just in that moment but as he sat on the sidelines as a reserve waiting for his big break.

Unfortunately for the New Zealander, his Red Bull dream was over almost as soon as it began, as he was demoted to Racing Bulls after just two races last season.

Liam Lawson opens up on ‘very, very supportive’ Max Verstappen

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Lawson saw off Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda to be announced as Sergio Perez’s replacement at Red Bull for the F1 2025 season.

But after failing to make it out of Q1 in Australia and China and not scoring points, Lawson was demoted.

Then Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said the team had a “duty of care to protect” Lawson, as it had been “difficult” to see him struggle.

However, dropping a driver after just two races didn’t go down well with many in the paddock.

“Yes, you gotta perform,” former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde wrote on Instagram. “Yes, the pressure is insane. But in my opinion this comes closer to bullying or a panic move than actual high athlete achievements.

“They made a decision – fully aware – gave Liam two races only to crush his spirit.”

Max Verstappen liked that post.

Asked about that, the Red Bull racer replied: “I liked the comment, the text, so I guess that speaks for itself, right? It was not a mistake.

“My reaction was shared with the team but in general, about not only the swap, but about everything. We discussed that already during last weekend and back at the factory.

“Everything has been shared with the team, how I think about everything. Sometimes it’s not necessary to always share everything in public. I think it’s better.”

But Verstappen’s support wasn’t just a thumbs up or a quote in a press conference.

Lawson revealed to the High Performance podcast that Verstappen had not only supported him as a reserve driver, discussing all things motor racing and showing an interest in his junior career, he also encouraged the New Zealander during their brief spell as teammates.

“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,” the Racing Bulls driver said.

“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.

“So when I came in, I noticed he would always make an effort to, like, just acknowledge me and say hi and stuff like this.

“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.”

And, of course, he also did so afterwards as he publicly made a statement with something as simple as a thumbs up.

“100 per cent, honestly,” Lawson said of that display. “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.”

“I just really appreciated it,” he continued.

“I think I was so excited to, not to go against him, but to be in a team with him and be able to have the opportunity to basically be in a car that’s the same as him and just see everything that he does and basically have a driving lesson from the best in the sport.

“That was something I was really excited for.

“I never went in there, like these guys that go in there and talk about trying to go in and beat him straight away, and it’s just such a stupid thing to do.

“I think it’s more, you know, having somebody like him to learn off was very exciting for me.”

More on Liam Lawson’s Red Bull demotion

Liam Lawson calls out Red Bull and Alpine over ‘unfair’ F1 firings

Liam Lawson hits back at Red Bull ‘mentally struggling’ demotion narrative

Liam Lawson’s very first on-track lesson from Max Verstappen

Exciting as it was, Lawson admitted it wasn’t always very successful on his side as he came up short trying to mimic Verstappen’s racing line during FP3 at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix.

It was Lawson’s first session in the AlphaTauri, as Racing Bulls was previously known, after being brought in to replace Daniel Ricciardo when the Australian broke his hand on the Friday.

The then-reserve driver noted how Verstappen attacked the corners at the Zandvoort circuit and decided to try it himself. He spun.

“I’ll never forget this. So very first time I went into Formula One with Zandvoort, and it was wet in FP3,” he revealed.

“I’d never driven the car or the track, and it was a very hard weekend, and obviously when Daniel had his injury, so I basically went out trying to learn the car, trying to drive on an intermediate tyre which I’d never driven before, and we’re getting through the session.

“Basically in a Formula One car, especially last year’s cars, the previous generation, you have to be so confident to drive these cars, like the commitment you have to have – which is also why the Red Bull thing was probably even more evident for me that it looked really, really tough because even if you’re at 99%, you’re slow, you’re losing so much lap time, you have to be so committed. So it’s weird.

“Towards the end of the session, I was trying to build up confidence driving this car, and we come around the sort of last corner, or second to last corner, and I’m letting them by, and Max comes by me and just power slides his car.

“I just remember seeing it and just being like, ‘there’s no way I can do that right now, like I am not, I’m so uncomfortable’. Yes, it was my first session in the car, but I was just like there’s no way.

“I came around the next lap, and I remember just being like, ‘I’m gonna send it’, and I slid out, and I spun the car, and I spun like down the hill, and like I was just like, ‘Oh’.

“It’s just he has so many moments where he just catches a car that is so on the limit. Like Barcelona, last year he had that save out of the last corner, which is just one of the biggest saves I’ve ever seen. Little things like that, that probably people don’t even remember, but like you see it from a driver’s perspective, you go, ‘that is, that is impressive’.

“And then honestly, the biggest all-rounder, though, is the way he races, which I’ve literally personally had experience with. Now, I had it with him in Miami a couple of race.

“He’s just… everybody has their ways of racing, but he’s different to race against. His sort of mindset of just you either back out or you crash, it’s just how it is in every situation.

“Just the commitment level, I think. He almost just gives you the option of you either stay there and we crash together, or I’m coming by, kind of thing.”

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