Christian Horner has shared the advice he has imparted on Liam Lawson, after the New Zealanders lack of pace during the first two practice sessions at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The 23-year-old struggled to match team-mate Max Verstappen through FP1 and FP2 - and across both short and long-run plans.
He lamented a "comfortable - just too slow" day in Melbourne, but Horner came in to bat for his driver, citing "good feedback" and the magnitude of the challenge Lawson has been tasked with.
The Red Bull team principal was quick to point out that Lawson has not raced at the Albert Park Circuit before whilst defending what drew the Milton Keynes squad to place him alongside its four-time drivers' champion.
"Liam, it’s a big step up," the 51-year-old told Sky Sports F1. "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’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."
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The Briton explained how he plans on tackling Lawson's difficult start to life at Red Bull with the driver himself.
"I think the main thing is just focus on himself," Horner replied when asked what he has told the New Zealander.
"Almost ignore what’s going on with the other car, just focus on himself, on working with his engineers and extracting the best that he can.
"He’s got a steep learning curve but everything that we’ve seen in the junior formula and the testing that he’s done with us, he’s got the ability to take that on and grow. We’ve just got to give him time."
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Parrot sound Goulding
It is early days, but will Lawson be an improvement on Perez? In my unimportant view, Red Bull should have promoted the more experienced, and faster, Tsunoda.
Greg Harris
I think that many will learn that Perez was better than they realized. Liam might not make it to the second half of the season. What's even more likely is that folks will learn just how good Max is. Let's face it, all these teammates have been good drivers, it's just that when they get in the RB, it becomes apparent it's not anywhere near the best car on the track - it just so happens that Max is able to extract every last ounce of performance out of that car, and almost all others cannot.
Bohunkgearhead
What did they expect when they played games with two different spec cars today?
keith-ashman#17324
Very true, the picture seems to favour having promoted Tsonda, he is clearly a good consistent driver now. One never knows the specification equality of the two cars and I suspect always a Max version will be there, given that he gets everything out if it the philosophy makes sense. I do sadly think Lawson is far out of the running for now. Wasted second seat that many good guys could have filled.