Liam Lawson says Max Verstappen was ‘so good’ to him when he struggled at Red Bull

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Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen were only teammates for two races at the start of the 2025 season, but the young driver still has fond memories of their partnership.

Lawson replaced Sergio Perez at the end of 2024 but Red Bull rapidly demoted him back to Racing Bulls after two poor races.

That left the New Zealander fighting for his place in Formula 1, but he steadied himself at Faenza and earned a new deal for 2026.

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Lawson was then replaced by Yuki Tsunoda, who became Verstappen’s fifth teammate in seven seasons. Tsunoda wasn’t the upgrade on Lawson that the team were hoping for, and he lost his seat to Isack Hadjar at the end of the year.

Liam Lawson praises Max Verstappen for his support at Red Bull

Speaking on the Gypsy Tales podcast, Lawson said Verstappen supported him throughout 2025 – before, during and after his nightmare stint at Red Bull.

He was on hand to give Lawson advice when he first joined the team, and he helped deal with the gut punch of losing the seat.

Verstappen has made it clear to the New Zealander that he can join him on his private jet to fly back from races, too.

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“He’s so nice as a person,” said Lawson. “He’s such a nice guy. Through everything that happened last year with Red Bull, he was so good to me.

“When I first came into the team, he was super nice. He was really helpful. Then afterwards as well, he was really, really good to me.

“He was really, really good. Quite often, he flies home, and I just moved to Monaco last year, and he says, ‘Come with me if you ever need a ride.'”

Verstappen arguably built up a villain persona earlier in his career through his uncompromising style on track and outspoken demeanour off it, but Lawson clearly regards that as unfair.

What Max Verstappen thought of Liam Lawson’s Red Bull struggles

Verstappen predicted that Lawson would be ‘faster’ at Racing Bulls because their car was ‘easier to drive’. Lawson’s subsequent upturn proved him right.

Even towards the end of the season, there were senior F1 figures saying Lawson had a ‘more stable’ car than Verstappen at the de facto junior team.

As he made clear internally, Verstappen didn’t agree with Red Bull dropping Lawson. He wanted the team to focus on improving their handling instead, which would have benefited both drivers.

New teammate Hadjar is arguably Red Bull’s most exciting talent since Verstappen, but there is a sense of trepidation as he tries to break the prolonged second-seat ‘curse’.