Ahead of his Red Bull debut, Franz Tost has warned his former charge Liam Lawson that any attempts to match Max Verstappen are “doomed to failure”.

Instead, the former Red Bull junior team boss says the New Zealander needs to focus solely on what he can do on the track.

Should Liam Lawson even try to challenge Max Verstappen?

Lawson is taking on one of Formula 1’s biggest challenges this season as he steps up to replace the ousted Sergio Perez as Verstappen’s fifth Red Bull team-mate.

It is a big ask, some may even say a thankless one given Verstappen’s prowess on the track.

While Lawson heads into the new season with 11 Grands Prix starts and six points to his name, Verstappen has contested 209 Grands Prix with his results including 63 wins and four World titles.

With the regulations unchanged for the F1 2025 championship, he remains the favourite to make it number five even though the competition did close the gap last season.

As such Tost has warned Lawson not to attempt to dethrone Verstappen as Red Bull’s number one driver as it will only end in tears. Instead, he should concentrate on improving his own performance on the track.

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Tost to F1-Insider.com: “Both Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson would have deserved the promotion. All I can say about Liam is he has to do his own thing and never try to compete with Max Verstappen.

“Max is one of the greatest of all time, on a level with Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna. He is far from past his prime and has endless capacity. He now has the self-confidence of a four-time World champion.

“Focusing on his times will go wrong. That’s why Liam should only think about himself and try to improve the car together with Max.

“Anything else would be fatal and doomed to failure.”

Verstappen’s father and former F1 driver Jos Verstappen gave Lawson a similar warning, having learned a hard lesson himself when he teamed up with Schumacher at Benetton in 1994.

While Schumacher fought for and won the World title, Verstappen recorded one retirement after another as he was not able to match Schumacher’s performance.

He twice reached the podium to end the season on 10 points, but he was 82 down on the German and left the team after just one season.

“That he should not make the mistake I made at Benetton in 1994: trying to keep up with Max at all costs,” was Verstappen’s warning to his son’s new team-mate. “He should do his own thing.

“Hopefully he has a similar driving style to Max, then together they can improve the car.”

The good news for Lawson is he already acknowledges he would best serve his own interests by learning from his team-mate, and not trying to keep up with him.

“To be honest, I’m looking forward to it the most because Max is the best in the world in our sport at the moment,” said Lawson.

“Every free practice session we do, I will have insight into his data. I will see exactly what he does and how he does it.

“Of course, it will be very difficult to keep up with him, but in terms of my development, there is no one better to learn from.”

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