Webber brands Perez a 'magician' after Lawson's tough Red Bull tenure

When Liam Lawson arrives in Suzuka next week, he will no longer be stepping into the Red Bull Racing garage. After being sidelined in favour of Yuki Tsunoda, the New Zealander now faces the challenge of proving himself at sister team Racing Bulls. Former Red Bull driver Mark Webber believes that Lawson’s best approach is to stay calm if he wants to revive his Formula 1 career.

No doubt Lawson is disappointed. But, as Mark Webber pointed out on the Formula for Success podcast, he must now make the most out of his opportunity with Racing Bulls: "He needs the vice released because he's going to have a chance to cool his jets a bit, go back to the smaller team where he's got some experience with already," Webber began.

Only Verstappen knows how to get the most out of Red Bull's challenger, similar to last year's RB20. Still, Webber believes that Perez did not do as badly as people first thought in 2024. "Max is the only one that can extract the lap time out of that car. I mean, Sergio, for certain races last year is now looking like a magician. So it's interesting just what they do there. I mean, it's a few tenths, three or four-tenths is a huge gap in our business. But Liam is not connecting with that car, so hasn't connected with that car. Can he go and just find his feet in the career and get going and get in the smaller team?"

Webber is also eager to see how Yuki Tsunoda will handle the challenge of driving alongside Verstappen in Red Bull’s notoriously difficult-to-master car. "If Yuki doesn't fire up in this other car, what happens then? If they're all on the ropes, that's going to be a very interesting dynamic." Webber explained.

Yuki Tsunoda makes his debut with Red Bull at his home race in Japan next weekend, at the legendary Suzuka Circuit.