Liam Lawson’s Red Bull spell showed just how ‘special’ Max Verstappen is

Pedro de la Rosa, now an Aston Martin ambassador, pointed to the struggles of Lawson and Tsunoda in 2025 as further evidence of Verstappen’s unique talent. He outclassed both drivers in the same machinery, with Lawson failing to score a point during his time at Red Bull.

The ex-McLaren driver also believes Verstappen’s performance throughout 2025 proved why he deserves to be mentioned among F1’s all-time greats. After trailing by 104 points, Verstappen closed the gap to just two points by season’s end, nearly securing a fifth straight drivers’ title.

“Yes,” De la Rosa told Automoto.it. “I’m impressed by him. And this year, he’s opened a lot of people’s eyes, managing to achieve incredible results without having the best car.

“When he was winning easily, everyone said he had the best car, without realising that his teammates rarely finished second. He was already doing something incredible, but people didn’t notice.

“But what he’s managed to do this year compared to what two excellent drivers like Lawson and Tsunoda were achieving is proof of how special he is.”

Verstappen’s dominance over Lawson and Tsunoda highlights the gap at Red Bull

Lawson had a tough start to 2025, with the season opener in Australia followed by China. He hadn’t raced at either Melbourne or Shanghai before, and had to learn both tracks while Red Bull worked on fixing their car’s balance issues.

While Verstappen managed to work around the early problems with the RB21, Lawson struggled. In Shanghai, he qualified last for both the Sprint and Grand Prix, while Verstappen was P2 and P4. That proved too much for Red Bull, who made a change soon after.

Tsunoda didn’t fare much better alongside Verstappen in 2025, but Lawson found form later in the year after Racing Bulls introduced a front suspension upgrade before Austria. Of his 38 points that season, 34 came after round 11 of 24.

Tsunoda finally out-qualified Verstappen for the first time during round 23 in Qatar’s Sprint session by just 0.009s as they started P5 and P6. But Verstappen still held a dominant edge over Tsunoda in Grand Prix qualifying sessions across the campaign.

The only time Tsunoda led Red Bull during a Grand Prix came when Andrea Kimi Antonelli crashed into Verstappen in Austria.