Verstappen named 'team-mate destroyer' as Red Bull warned over Lawson risk

Red Bull has been reminded that Max Verstappen is an F1 "team-mate destroyer", as Liam Lawson prepares to go up against the four-time world champion.

After just 11 grand prix starts, Kiwi Lawson has been promoted to the senior Red Bull team, replacing the axed Sergio Perez, but faces a brutal challenge up against Verstappen. 

During his time at Red Bull, Verstappen has been paired with Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Perez, with all four either leaving of their own accord or being dropped having not been able to cope with Verstappen's relentlessness.

Perez was a veteran of 281 grand prix starts at the end of the 2024 campaign, but he had been mentally destroyed by four seasons alongside Verstappen. 

By contrast, Lawson is just starting his first full season in F1, with former F1 racer-turned pundit Anthony Davidson believing it is a "risk" Red Bull has created for itself in pairing Verstappen and Lawson.

"It is a bit of risk, putting any driver up against Max Verstappen when he is at his absolute prime," Sky Sports F1's Davidson exclusively told RacingNews365. 

"He is a team-mate destroyer, who would have thought what he did to Daniel Ricciardo where it got to the point Ricciardo felt like he had to move on and go to Renault?

"There is a lot of decent drivers he's gone up against, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, and we had Carlos Sainz in the early days, but we're yet to see somebody step into the sister car and properly challenge Verstappen, and hold their head high at the end of the season and not feel weighed down by the constant battering they get.

"So, it is a bit of risk, but I guess where the team got to, who else were you going to put in because where Perez had got to, it was just not good enough to continuously fight and keep Red Bull in the fight for the constructors' championship."

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