A two-year-old rivalry between Liam Lawson and Sergio Pérez was rekindled at the Australian Grand Prix after the pair found themselves fighting for position at the season opener.
The feud dates back to the 2024 season when Lawson, who was driving for Racing Bulls, was being considered as Pérez’s replacement at senior team Red Bull for 2025. Contact between the pair at Pérez’s home race in Mexico stands out from that year, notably because Lawson was forced to apologise for making a hand gesture at Pérez from his cockpit.
Lawson ultimately replaced Pérez for 2025, but lasted just two races at Red Bull before he was demoted back to Racing Bulls.
Pérez has since returned to F1 with Cadillac and found himself in a battle with his old rival at his first race back.
The pair nearly made contact as they fought for position at Turn 3, forcing Lawson wide, before the Racing Bulls driver completed a pass on Pérez with a robust move at Turn 11 later in the lap.
“That guy f—ing sucks,” Lawson said over team radio after making the overtake.
Pérez, meanwhile, seemed bemused by Lawson’s driving.
“Haha! What happened with this guy?” he asked over Cadillac’s radio.
Speaking after the race, Lawson seemed convinced that Pérez’s strong defence was rooted in the pair’s history.
“Two years later and he’s not over it!” Lawson said. “He’s fighting me like it’s for the world championship and we are like P16.
“Obviously, I don’t really care too much. My race was already over at that point, so never mind.”
He added: “It was nothing illegal, it was just aggressive. There was nothing … Honestly, I don’t car because it was for P16.”
Pérez shrugged the incident off when talking to the media and made no mention of the past rivalry.
“It was a bit of fun racing,” he said. “I was in a much slower car, so for me it was just trying to race.”
Lawson went on to finish the race 13th while Pérez ended up in 16th, three laps down.
Lawson said any hope of a good result disappeared at the start when he made a shocking getaway from eighth on the grid and dropped to the back of the field.
“I had no power,” he explained. “I launched and just lost all power.
“I was sitting there and couldn’t get it back and then a couple of seconds later I got it back and then got wheelspin. I don’t know what happened, I didn’t have that in testing.”
