{"id":651191,"date":"2026-05-05T13:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/651191\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T13:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:39:11","slug":"racing-bulls-should-not-have-ordered-him-to-let-verstappen-past-racefans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/651191\/","title":{"rendered":"Racing Bulls should not have ordered him to let Verstappen past \u2013 RaceFans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liam Lawson<\/a> clearly disagreed with his team\u2019s order to let Max Verstappen overtake him on the second lap of the Miami Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

However he immediately complied with the instruction to make way for his former team mate at Racing Bulls\u2019 sister team.<\/p>\n

The incident began after Verstappen\u2019s first-lap spin dropped him behind Lawson. The Red Bull driver closed on the Racing Bulls but was still behind as they began slowing for turn 11.<\/p>\n

Verstappen dived up the inside but never got sufficiently alongside Lawson. Nonetheless he forced Lawson wide, sending both off the track on the outside of the corner.<\/p>\n

Lawson rejoined the track ahead of Verstappen. The four-times champion was unimpressed, calling Lawson an \u201cidiot\u201d on his radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what Max was doing there,\u201d said Lawson as he began the second lap. His race engineer Ernesto Desiderio made no reference to the incident until Lawson accelerated out of turn eight further on the same lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiam, we need to give the position back to Max,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to give the position to Max. 1.3 behind. Behind him, 1.3 Albon. Do it as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free<\/a><\/p>\n

Lawson objected, but complied. \u201cHe drove into the side of me,\u201d said Lawson as he backed off significantly at the next braking zone. \u201cI don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the face of it, Lawson was entirely justified in arguing his case. F1\u2019s racing guidelines state<\/a> a driver in Verstappen\u2019s position, overtaking on the inside, must \u201chave its front axle at least alongside the mirror [of] the other car prior to and at the apex\u201d and \u201cbe driven in a fully controlled manner particularly from entry to apex and not have \u2018dived in\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

Verstappen\u2019s onboard footage of the incident showed he failed on both counts. Racing Bulls should have known from a glance that Lawson had kept his position legitimately.<\/p>\n

It is up to the teams to decide if they feel they should surrender a position. Therefore it is striking both that Racing Bulls came to the wrong conclusion and ordered Lawson to comply so emphatically.<\/p>\n

The situation contrasted tellingly with Verstappen\u2019s move on Lewis Hamilton<\/a> in the sprint race the previous day. Then too Verstappen dived down the inside at the same corner and both cars went off, but this time Verstappen emerged ahead.<\/p>\n

Verstappen\u2019s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase knew his driver wouldn\u2019t be allowed to gain a position that way. But rather than give him the kind of order Lawson received, Lambiase merely advised Verstappen: \u201cI think it\u2019s best you give the position back to Hamilton.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free<\/a><\/p>\n

Did Racing Bulls unnecessarily order Lawson to give up the position? It seems so.<\/p>\n

Was the cause a misinterpretation of the racing rules, as when Red Bull incorrectly told Verstappen to let George Russell<\/a> past him in Spain last year? It\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n

But this situation was a much clearer call than that one. It invites a different explanation: that, not for the first time<\/a>, Red Bull\u2019s second team gave them a helping hand.<\/p>\n

Miss nothing from RaceFans<\/p>\n

Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:<\/p>\n

Comment
\nBrowse all comment articles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liam Lawson clearly disagreed with his team\u2019s order to let Max Verstappen overtake him on the second lap…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-651191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}