How Max Verstappen played a key role in ‘emotional’ Red Bull moment after Daniel Ricciardo incident

Taking advantage of F1's summer break, Red Bull have released an extended tribute to Max Verstappen to celebrate his 200th grand prix start, with team-mates past and present sharing stories of the four-time world champion.

Liam Lawson shared his experience of being called up to Red Bull sister team AlphaTauri back in 2023 mid-weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix after Daniel Ricciardo broke his hand in a crash.

The Kiwi was launched into the seat to replace his fellow antipodean with essentially no notice, and has now revealed that Verstappen helped him deal with the overload of emotions on the day.

Lawson raced to a credible 13th place that weekend, even finishing ahead of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda and setting himself on course for a future full-time drive in the sport.

Lawson reveals Verstappen advice

The youngster ended up driving five races in relief of Ricciardo before the more experienced driver was able to return from his injury, impressing and earning his first F1 points with a ninth-place finish in Singapore.

While his Red Bull career has been mixed in the time since - replacing Ricciardo again last year when the Aussie was dropped for performance issues, replacing Sergio Perez in the main team for the start of the 2025 season, being dropped back down to Racing Bulls after two races, and so on - Lawson is still very appreciative of Verstappen's words on that first weekend.

He said in the video: "I think something I probably won't forget was my first weekend coming into Formula 1 in Zandvoort. It was a very last minute sort of situation that I was driving. It wasn't expected and I had a lot of emotions trying to get ready for it and he was very good to me.

"He basically just gave me some advice on trying to enjoy it and remember that it's what we've all worked our whole lives to get to. To hear that from him was something I didn't expect, and something I appreciated a lot at the time."

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