Red Bull has shown a decent improvement with the RB21 challenger. Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson participated in pre-season testing and posted solid lap times. However, Lawson spun out on the first day, bringing out a red flag. Helmut Marko has now weighed in on the Kiwi’s ‘wrong decision’ that led to the latter’s woeful outing in the pre-season test.

Liam Lawson‘s performance during the second session of the first day of testing was mediocre at best. Following the spin-out incident, Lawson could only come out as eighth fastest at the end of the day. Max Verstappen on the other hand performed much better and finished second on the last day of testing.

Helmut Marko noted that Lawson did a good job in the test session overall. The Austrian highlighted that the 23-year-old couldn’t gain much ground after switching to medium compound and changing some settings in his car. Marko labeled this change as the ‘wrong decision’ that caused the Kiwi to gain only one-tenths as compared to other’s massive gain.

Helmut Marko delivers a short verdict on Liam Lawson vs Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez‘s woeful performances and ultimate departure from Red Bull enabled Liam Lawson to gain a seat at Red Bull. This means that Lawson must one-up the predecessor to retain his seat in the future. Following the culmination of the pre-season test, Helmut Marko compared Lawson to Perez.

Marko didn’t hesitate to claim that Lawson was already far more enthusiastic than Perez over his career at Red Bull. This means that the 23-year-old is off to a good start and must maintain a similar trajectory of development through the season.

The final year of the ground-effect era is set to remain extremely exciting, especially at the forefront. Red Bull seems to have somewhat improved the pace as compared to the previous season. Hence, multiple teams seem ready for championship contention.