Liam Lawson recalls hilarious shoe-giving incident to Max Verstappen
Even before becoming teammates with Max Verstappen, Liam Lawson had helped the Dutchman during a race weekend by sharing his shoes with him.
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Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson (via Getty Images)
After staying on the sidelines for over a year, Liam Lawson finally earned a full-time seat in F1 for the 2025 season. Moreover, this seat would be coming from a top team none other than Red Bull. Ahead of his arrival at Milton Keynes, the Kiwi shared an incident where he gave his shoes to his future teammate Max Verstappen during the 2021 season.
In 2021, Max Verstappen welcomed another teammate during his Red Bull spell. Sergio Perez joined the Austrian outfit and looked to be the solution to Red Bull’s driver woes. On the other hand, Liam Lawson was racing in F2 back then, aiming to pave his way through the field to make it into F1.
While his journey to F1 was long, he reminisced about how his first interaction with Verstappen was not a direct one. The 22-year-old was the only person in the Red Bull pool with the same shoe size as the Dutchman at the Azerbaijan GP weekend. And with the team needing a pair of shoes urgently for Verstappen, Lawson’s shoes were eventually given to the 27-year-old.
I had been at the hotel for a while and returned to the track between sessions. My boss, Oli, sent me a picture and said: I just gave your shoes to Red Bull, Verstappen needs them because you are the only one with the same shoe size.
Liam Lawson said (via Marca)
In hindsight, Lawson’s shoes were a great investment for the Kiwi as his relations with Verstappen grew warmer. Now, the pair reps up to take on the challenge of the 2025 season while the Kiwi would also have to prove his worth to the competitive grid.
Red Bull reveals Liam Lawson’s goal while pairing up with Max Verstappen
Though Lawson has earned a massive promotion to join the squadron at Milton Keynes, Red Bull would want him to fulfill a certain set of criteria to ensure he is not sacked mid-way through the season. Moreover, Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko is known to be quite trigger-happy with young talents.
This led the Austrian to assert that the Kiwi should stay within three-tenths of Verstappen over a lap. A task that Perez was unable to fulfill as his deficit stayed within the range of four to five-tenths.
He should be able to stay within three tenths of Max both in qualifying and in the races. That should be enough to accumulate points for the constructors’ championship.
Helmut Marko said (via Sport.de)
However, the duo of Verstappen and Lawson is already being regarded as a threat to other top teams. With young talent and the Dutchman’s expertise in winning world championships, the Red Bull duo is a formidable one on paper.
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Geetansh Pasricha
(742 Articles Published)