“I think Lawson is doing very well,” Verstappen told Viaplay. It seems logical to me that he is ready to step up. Let him finish this season and build confidence and then the team has to decide what they do for next year,
When asked if Lawson would be a suitable candidate to race alongside Verstappen, Jos replied: “I certainly don’t oppose that. It’s better if there is someone who is competitive and pushes Max forward a bit. That always helps, but we’ll see.”
When Perez faltered, Lawson stepped up. He only returned to Formula One at the United States Grand Prix when Daniel Ricciardo was axed, but has made a promising start to life on the grid, and he has clashed with Perez already on several occasions.
At Perez’s home race in Mexico, Lawson visibly swore at the Red Bull man when overtaking him. He later apologised, but their rivalry was renewed in Brazil.
During the sprint race in Sao Paulo, Perez started in 13th and had worked his way up the grid and had his sights set on Lawson. The Kiwi was occupying the last points position, but his Mexican opponent was determined to score in South America.
Having overtaken Lawson, a virtual safety car protected him from losing that spot, though Lawson felt the Perez was purposefully slow on the grid in an attempt to hamper his progress.
“I don’t even have words for what I just watched,” Lawson said over the team radio. “Did you see I was on the gearbox of Checo? He’s like five seconds positive.”
VCARB race engineer Pierre Hamelin replied: “Okay Liam, obviously very frustrating. P9. Just about there.
“We will review what happened at the VSC restart. We lost quite a bit there compared to the guys in front. We’ll have a look.”
Perez is adamant that he has a future in F1 and Red Bull, but Lawson impressing with VCARB will undoubtedly have the attention of Horner and Helmut Marko.
Both drivers’ futures should be clarified sooner rather than later, But Lawson seemingly already has the Jos seal of approval.
