Red Bull have learned from past mistakes not to put too much pressure on rookies, their former driver Christian Klien believes.
Liam Lawson will start his first full season as a Formula 1 driver this year at Red Bull. He will go up against four-times world champion Max Verstappen, who has overwhelmingly beaten each of his last three team mates: Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon and Sergio Perez.Klien, who raced for Red Bull during their first season in F1, said Red Bull had no choice but to replace Perez. “For me, it was quite clear they had to change something,” he told The Business of Winning. “Checo just unfortunately didn’t deliver anymore.
“He had a great time at Red Bull Racing, but the last one-and-a-half years, it just didn’t click anymore. Mentally I think it was a difficult situation for him so they had to change something.”
Red Bull passed over their more experienced junior driver Yuki Tsunoda, who enters his fifth season in F1 this year, to promote 23-year-old Lawson, who has only started 11 grands prix. However Klien, who was 21 at the time of his F1 debut, said he “can understand” Red Bull’s decision.
He said Lawson must expect to play second fiddle to Verstappen in his first year in F1. “For Liam, if you get this opportunity, you have to grab it with with both hands. Everybody’s dream is to drive in a top team and a top car. The difficulty is you’re driving next to Max Verstappen.
“That’s now down to him. I think he has the talent, he is a really quick driver, he showed this. He can adapt very quickly. I think he is also mentally strong. But he has to go at this in a very clever way, I think.
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“He shouldn’t go into Red Bull Racing and think ‘I can beat Max Verstappen’ because I don’t think early on in his career that’s possible. He has to be a great number two driver, let’s say, now, learn from the best that Max Verstappen is at the moment and his time can come in the future. So again, it’s really exciting to see this year how he will handle the situation and how Red Bull Racing as a team helps him in this role next to Max Verstappen.”
Klien believes Red Bull have expected too much from their junior drivers in the past, including Daniil Kvyat, who they dropped early in 2016 to make way for Verstappen.
“I hope they don’t put too much pressure [on] him,” said Klien. “They made the mistake with Kvyat, with Albon, et cetera. I think they learned from it.
“What they need is a second driver who scores points and they can go for the constructors’ championship again.”
When Klien drove for Red Bull in 2005, the team took the unusual decision to rotate one of their seats between him and Vitantonio Liuzzi. Klien said Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko later accepted this had been an error.
“It made it very difficult,” said Klien. “Tonio and myself were sharing the car not only in the first couple of races, but also in testing. So we had half of the running off of David Coulthard, for example.
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“But that was a decision that was made by Helmut Marko and we made the best out of it in the end. Luckily later on I got promoted to do the rest of the season, which was crucial not only for myself but also for the team, because you cannot have three drivers in two cars, it just [doesn’t] work.
“I [was] quite happy to hear Helmut Marko a couple of years back, he came up to me and said Christian, I think that was quite a mistake that I did there, that you guys shared the car. So I’m happy that he realised it.”
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BasCB (@bascb)
14th February 2025, 7:42
Hm, well Klien doesn’t actually say that Red Bull WON’T repeat the same mistakes. Just that they KNOW that was not the right approach and Lawson has a chance at being treated differently because of it.
I do hope they go about it differently, but can a Marko and a Horner really change their way of operating they have lived with and been clearly convinced it was right for decades? We’ll see.
MacLeod (@macleod)
14th February 2025, 7:53
Even those two knows (ezels stootten niet twee keer aan dezelfde steen (even Donkeys don’t hit the same rock twice)) the fourth time should enough to change things. Learn as much possible en just do your best for yourself not he has to beat Max in his first year.
To think to thrown youngsters in the water and watch who will swim isn’t not a great thing for a operation as Red Bull as that is too wastfull.
anon
14th February 2025, 9:24
The problem is that Horner and Marko give the impression they are reluctant to change course because it’d raise questions about how they run the team, and neither wants to look like they are getting things wrong when their positions at the team looked a bit vulnerable last year.
Coventry Climax
14th February 2025, 10:26
Speculation.
I also think they’re not giving impressions, so don’t agree on that being the problem either.
Only people with connections very close into the team can say anything with authority about it.
MichaelN
14th February 2025, 19:05
It’s way past impressions. The last serious talent Marko brought to F1 was Sainz, in 2015.
He has a decade of lackluster results to show for all his work and no doubt enormous investments into junior careers.
Leroy (@g-funk)
14th February 2025, 13:11
I hope they go about it differently too, but even if they have learned from previous mistakes they still have to deal with Jos, who will be agitating the team in all respects and will be conducting his own psychological warfare against anyone who he perceives as a threat to his son’s success.
MichaelN
14th February 2025, 19:06
Jos Verstappen doing psychological warfare? That’s a little above his pay grade. Jos is more of a fists doing the talking kinda guy.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
14th February 2025, 20:41
I think most of the paddock is hip to Jos, including Horner.
Dex
14th February 2025, 9:44
They hired him. That’s already a past mistake being repeated, again.
El Pollo Loco
15th February 2025, 21:08
Precisely.
And this isn’t anything against Lawson. This is about putting a guy with 11 races to his name in a seat that has about a 50% chance of destroying his career before it even gets started and throwing the team’s driver lineup into crisis once again.
Jungle
14th February 2025, 10:26
I think with the current dynamic of the team and Max still suckling off Marko’s teet not much is going to change on how they go about things. Plus Jos firing shots from the peanut gallery.
Frank and Patrick were ruthless and many drivers mentioned the cold environment within the Williams camp. At the end of the day though they were both on the same page.
Similar situation now with Briatore moving back into Alpine. The other seats become a pressure cooker.
Marko should be hanging out in the B teams garage if that’s what his role of bringing in the new talent is. His friendship with Dietrich now has little relevance. And yes I’m aware of the Austrian connection. If Horner is the TP then let him run the team hands free.
Jere (@jerejj)
14th February 2025, 11:06
We shall see.
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
14th February 2025, 15:08
Is that because Lawson will dominate Verstappen out of the team?
mrt
14th February 2025, 15:50
hahaha! thank you, I needed that after a long day.
harsha vardhan
14th February 2025, 16:12
It would have been perfect if it was said by perez
Toxic
15th February 2025, 0:06
What mistakes? Is this some kind of woke thing? This is F1, maybe let’s go back to it being a pinnacle of Motorsport for only the best drivers in the world? I for once hope redbull won’t go soft and if he is not up to it drop him for someone better.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
15th February 2025, 1:38
Indeed, and give tsunoda a shot and go harsh on him too if he doesn’t deliver, though I read some convincing comments from users here about them not wanting to hire tsunoda because of honda’s behaviour, which put them in a difficult situation engine wise, so unlikely.
El Pollo Loco
15th February 2025, 21:10
I don’t think this had anything to do with woke type sensitivity. I do hope they give Yuki an actual shout though if Lawson struggles as badly as many anticipate.
Sergey Martyn
17th February 2025, 12:34
Whose mistakes were these? Marko, Horner?
Were they punished in any way, other than losing the constructors title last year?
They should have hired Sainz with a clause in his contract preventing him from racing Max, that’s it.