Lawson to measure up against Verstappen? 'I get his data all year long'
F1 News
Liam Lawson is Max Verstappen's teammate this season. Although the temptation may be great, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko have already advised the New Zealander not to think he can beat the four-time world champion. In the podcast Beyond the Grid, Lawson talks about how he looks at the 'challenge' of being Verstappen's teammate at Red Bull Racing.
Lawson has the data from Verstappen
The new Red Bull driver stated that he does not want to see it as a challenge to be Verstappen's teammate: "You can’t look at it in that way. If I’m coming in and thinking to myself that I’m competing against him, obviously we’re all competing against each other, I’m very aware of that, but in my position coming in effectively as a rookie, coming to track never having done a first full season..."
The New Zealander then continued, "If I look at Max ten years ago to how he is now, he’s improved massively. It’s more the opportunity to have him as a teammate to learn off for me. For my growth in Formula 1, we’re always learning. There’s really nobody better to have to learn off, he’s literally the best at the moment in the sport."
Last year, Lawson did a test with Verstappen at Silverstone, "To be able to see everything. We did a test last year as a comparison together in Silverstone and it was just one lap each, but that data I took home and had that all year because it was the first time ever that I can be able to compare directly against him and see exactly what he does as a driver. Although it’s just one lap, it was important to have that. Now I get that [the data] in every session this year."
This coming weekend, Lawson will make his debut for Red Bull Racing. He has only driven 11 Grands Prix for the Racing Bulls, and this will be his first full year in Formula One.
This article was written in collaboration with Cas van de Kleut.
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