Max Verstappen issues stern Red Bull F1 demand as feelings on Liam Lawson made clear
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Max Verstappen has proven he does not care who his team-mate is as he demanded an improvement from Red Bull's design team. Verstappen claimed his fourth successive world drivers' championship title last year. But he did so in a car that eventually became the third-fastest on the grid, with both McLaren and Ferrari finishing ahead of the Austrian side in the constructors' championship.
It was a remarkable drop off from Red Bull, with the team having won all but one race in the 2023 season. With McLaren's Lando Norris now smelling blood, while Ferrari prepare to field a superstar pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Verstappen has fired a warning.
Red Bull's focus in the offseason has been dominated by the decision to replace Sergio Perez with Liam Lawson. But Verstappen has insisted that the team look towards improving the car rather than settling on a change of driver line-up. “If we can get the car back to the front, the name in the other cockpit won’t matter,” he told Blick. "I don’t have a crystal ball, but if we can rectify certain weaknesses over the winter, we’ll be back at the front. But I’m certainly not making any predictions here.
“Five teams should be fighting at the front. The weaknesses have been narrowed down. We often lacked the necessary balance because we simply couldn’t get into the low temperature window.”. Lawson will be fifth different partner Verstappen has had since joining Red Bull in 2016, following Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Perez. Team princial Christian Horner is backing the New Zealander to help take Red Bull back to the top of the constructors' championship.
