Verstappen refutes McLaren's Lawson 'challenge' claim

Max Verstappen has dismissed the suggestion Liam Lawson will experience "rookie weekends" during his first full season racing in F1.

The Dutchman waving off that notion comes after McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown expressed his belief the New Zealander and Kimi Antonelli could create a "challenge" in the constructors' championship for Red Bull and Mercedes, respectively.

Alongside his team and Ferrari, the American expects the top four in F1 to be closely matched over the year to come, but his comments do imply the two rookies could be a differentiating factor.

Lawson has just 11 grands prix to his name from his stints at AlphaTauri/RB in 2023 and 2024, and the Italian youngster is yet to start a race in F1 having stepped up from F2 at the end of last season.

In Brown's opinion, "that, from a constructors' point of view, will probably present it a bit more of a challenge over 24 races, because they'll inevitably have some rookie weekends."

Despite the 53-year-old also predicting both will win grands prix in the campaign ahead, seemingly only the negative element of his answer to media including RacingNews365 made its way back to Verstappen.

Nonetheless, it is not how Verstappen sees things. The four-time F1 drivers' champion refused to get drawn into the debate surrounding his new team-mate and whatever learning curve might be headed his way.

To the 27-year-old there is no way of predicting what lies in wait for Lawson - or Antonelli - and so it is better to not merely speculate about the possibilities.

"You don't know that, you can't fill that in now," Verstappen told Dutch media when Brown's remarks were put to him.

"Who says rookie weekends are going to happen? You don't know that. That's why it's better not to talk about it."