Liam Lawson had looked forward to finding out what really made Max Verstappen tick by delving into his data.

But alas, Red Bull demoted Lawson back to Racing Bulls after just two rounds of F1 2025. That left him with learnings of little value to take away.

Liam Lawson missed out on Max Verstappen data education

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

After the departure of Sergio Perez following the 2024 campaign, Red Bull turned to Liam Lawson as his replacement. While his Formula 1 experience was limited to a pair of spells with junior team Racing Bulls in 2023 and 2024, Red Bull felt the New Zealander was best prepared mentally to go up against Verstappen.

But, it was a harrowing experience for Lawson, who after two race weekends spent largely at the back of the grid, returned to Racing Bulls, with Yuki Tsunoda moving the other way.

Lawson was the latest driver to find out why Verstappen has built his reputation as the Red Bull team-mate killer. But, he did not learn as much about the four-time World Champion as he had hoped.

“I was very excited to have that opportunity to basically see everything that he was doing in detail,” Lawson admitted about Verstappen to RacingNews365.com.

“Because I think the thing is, to be honest, we have so much data shared across teams at the moment.

“It’s very simple data, but as a driver, it’s the main stuff that we’re looking at, speed traces, you know, where somebody’s braking, throttle places, gears, things like that that we use.

“We actually can see across the grid what people are doing. So I already compare with Max a lot to see how he’s approaching corners and things like that.

“So it was the detailed stuff that you wouldn’t get across teams that I was excited to have, but in two weekends, it’s very hard to take too much from that.”

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Lawson has impressed since returning to Racing Bulls. Having shaken off the Red Bull disappointment, he has collected 20 points, only two shy of impressive rookie team-mate Isack Hadjar.

Lawson recorded a career-best result of sixth in Austria, all while Tsunoda is languishing below him in the Drivers’ Championship with only 10 points on the board.

That has led to speculation over Tsunoda’s long-term future at Red Bull, considering his ties with Honda, who will switch its engine supply to Aston Martin from next season.

Lawson was asked by PlanetF1.com at the Hungarian Grand Prix about the idea of a Red Bull return.

“Honestly, in terms of my future, it’s been so busy this year that I’m not really thinking about it,” he replied.

“I’m focused on having some good races. Obviously, we’ve had some recently, but three of them isn’t enough over 12 races, or however many it’s been, so we need to do more of this, and then we’ll see.”

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