Lawson has been promoted alongside Verstappen at Red Bull this year after impressing bosses while at the junior squad last season.
Drafted in to replace Daniel Ricciardo following the Singapore Grand Prix in 2024, his six race stint at RB wowed bosses enough to earn him a call-up.
The New Zealander got the nod over teammate Yuki Tsunoda to fill the void left by Sergio Perez at Red Bull because he seemed to be a better long-term bet.
But Lawson has struggled since joining Red Bull. He’s qualified last in the three qualifying sessions so far this season and is yet to score a point.
In China, team boss Christian Horner suggested Verstappen was let down by a conservative strategy and rather than fourth, could have had third.
That contrast in performance to Lawson has seen the pressure rise exponentially on the youngster, who is now working to save his drive after just two race weekends.
As he does so, his four-time world championship-winning teammate offered a bleak assessment of the situation.
“If you look at the difference between the two drivers at the other teams, they are all closer together,” Verstappen said of his gap to Lawson.
“It also shows that our car is extremely tough.
“I think if you put Liam in the Racing Bulls car, he will go faster. I really think so. That car is easier to drive than ours.”
The Red Bull RB21 has proved a difficult car to master, with Verstappen himself admitting it’s not currently fast enough to win races.
Though he challenged for a time in the Chinese GP Sprint, high tyre degradation saw him fall back.
A change in approach for the race improved that situation, but left the Dutchman with too much to do late in the race to reach Russell.
In Australia, it was only the Safety Car and Verstappen’s own mastery of wet conditions that kept him in contention with race-winner Lando Norris.
Tyres have been a key challenge for Lawson.
He has thus far been unable to get them in the right window in qualifying which has resulted in him starting well out of position and compromised his chances before the race has started.
The situation has now built such that there are calls for the 22-year-old to be replaced by Tsunoda for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Tsunoda has performed well in 2025 with a Racing Bulls car that has proved far more compliant than its cousin, the RB21 – a point highlighted by rookie Isack Hadjar reaching Qualifying 3 in China.
For his part, Red Bull boss Christian Horner has offered his support to Lawson, though stopped short of guaranteeing his survival, even in the short term.
“Liam’s had a tough, tough couple of races,” he said following the Chinese Grand Prix.
“We elected to take him off the grid, out of parc ferme, to do a significant setup change.
“We’ve managed to get 56 laps of reasonable data from that.
“Obviously we’ll take that away, we’ll have a good look at it and, as a group, we’ll do our best to support him.”
A meeting is set to be held in coming days where the Kiwi’s fate will be discussed, as presumably will be whether Tsunoda might be a better bet.
But even that offers no guarantees for Red Bull, a point Verstappen seemed to acknowledge.
“Last year, I didn’t think the difference between [Lawson] and Yuki Tsunoda was that big,” he reasoned.
“Otherwise the team wouldn’t make the choice to put him in at Red Bull either.”
The Japanese Grand Prix runs from April 4-6.
