Liam Lawson has addressed his on-track conflicts with Formula 1 veterans Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez in the final rounds of the 2024 season.
Lawson, who took the place of Daniel Ricciardo at Racing Bulls for the final six races of the campaign, was immediately in the thick of the action, duelling with Alonso at the United States Grand Prix, and with Perez at the latter’s home race in Mexico.
Alonso took issue with Lawson’s perceived aggressiveness in Austin and the pair were seen exchanging words after the United States Grand Prix Sprint.
In Mexico, Lawson and Perez car’s came together and the New Zealander later flipped the Mexican his middle finger when passing him on track.
The incidents sparked harsh feelings towards Lawson by both men, with Perez saying after their tussle that the Kiwi needed to be “more humble”.
Lawson has since been signed by Red Bull to replace Perez for this year, having scored four points in his stint at the team’s Faenza counterpart.
Asked by Autosport if the testy battles were a way of proving his worth to Red Bull, Lawson denied that this was the case.
“No, it’s not like… I’m not trying to set an example or anything like that,” he said.
“I feel like I’m racing everybody the same way, I’m not racing anybody any differently.
“I have a very short window here at the moment, so it’s very important [to prove myself], but I’m not trying to set an example, or set, like, a – I don’t know what the word is.” Prove a point? “I’m not really trying to do that, no.”
Red Bull promotion emphasises Lawson rise
Liam Lawson had previously jumped into an F1 car before his 2024 outings, substituting for an injured Ricciardo for five races in 2023 for the team, then known as AlphaTauri, scoring two points in Singapore.
After taking Ricciardo’s place permanently from Austin onwards last year, the writing seemed on the wall for the underperforming Perez that Lawson would indeed be promoted up the full Red Bull ranks.
Joining the Red Bull Junior Team in 2019, Lawson raced in Formula 3 with MP Motorsport and then Hitech, with whom he would finish fifth in the 2020 standings with three victories.
In his first year in Formula 2 in 2021, Lawson would score one victory, still with Hitech, before switching to Carlin for the 2022 campaign, finishing third in the championship with four wins and a further six podium finishes.
2021 would also see Lawson spend one year in DTM with the Red Bull AF Corse team alongside his Hitech F2 duties, finishing P2 in the championship ahead of team-mates Alex Albon and Nick Cassidy.
Like many Red Bull juniors before him, Lawson went from F2 to the Japanese Super Formula series, where he finished second in the 2023 Drivers’ standings.
Now, with just 11 GP starts to his name, Lawson has the toughest job in F1, being Max Verstappen’s team-mate.
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