Helmut Marko has made it clear what they need Liam Lawson for. Well, nothing more than a stable second driver whose job will be to be the first to lose...
Anyone who thought that Liam Lawson had hit the jackpot with the Red Bull Racing seat should take some time to consider the following lines:
"Despite his limited F1 experience, Liam Lawson was mentally the strongest of our junior drivers. No one can beat Max Verstappen; that's a heavy burden to accept. Lawson is capable of doing that, and he has great potential for development. Compared to Yuki Tsunoda, Yuki is clearly the faster driver, but he lacks the aforementioned qualities. He makes unnecessary mistakes and accidents, struggles with his outbursts of anger, and traditionally slows down in such moments. With these factors, you start with an even greater handicap in a team where the current world champion is on the other side of the garage.
That would have been too much for Tsunoda; he wouldn't have been able to emotionally handle falling behind and not being able to win. We expect Lawson to stay within three-tenths of Verstappen in both qualifying and the races. According to our calculations, that will be just enough to score a reasonable number of points in the Constructors' Championship. We expect him to continually improve in line with his abilities," Marko said, clarifying Liam Lawson's position within the Red Bull team.
