F1 News: Liam Lawson Sends Strong Message After Sergio Perez Backlash
VCARB driver Liam Lawson has spoken out after his heated exchange with Red Bull driver Sergio Perez during the Mexican Grand Prix weekend. Lawson, who has recently replaced Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull's sister team, is widely regarded as a potential replacement for Perez next year if he does not find significant improvements in his performance.
The pair got into a heated battle on track at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez which ended with Lawson giving the middle finger to the Mexican driver. Speaking to the media ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend, Lawson explained:
“My attitude towards racing and how I approach races in Formula 1 won’t change, that’s how I’ll always be.
“But, at the same time there’s things in there, if I make mistakes I’ll always learn from them, and clearly in Mexico, I made a mistake, and I’ll learn from it.
“Briefly, we spoke after the race, but at the same time, we left the track very early, immediately afterward anyway. I think it was an on-track fight and I apologise obviously for what I did after the incident.
“But in terms of the fight we had on track, it was, I guess, deemed as a racing incident and something that was an in-the-moment battle.
“I’ll learn from, maybe, mistakes that I made. But, at the same time, I’ll take advice from everybody I can and my target is not to go out and make enemies with anybody, that’s not the goal obviously, but at the same time I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to win.”
This comes after Perez had strong words for the New Zealander. Perez commented after the Mexican Grand Prix that he didn't think Lawson had the right attitude for Formula 1 racing. He said:
"I think the way he has come to Formula 1, I don't think he has the right attitude for it. He needs to be a bit more humble, you know. When two-time world champion was saying things last weekend, he completely ignored him.
"It's like when you come to Formula 1, you're obviously very hungry and so on, but you have to be as well respectful off-track and on-track. I don't think he's showing the right attitude to show a good pace for himself, because I think he's a great driver and I hope for him that he can step back and learn from it."
He added:
"I think his two first two grand prix he has had too many incidents and I think there will be a point where it can cost him too much, like he did this weekend. I just think he has to have the right attitude to say, look, I'm overdoing it a little bit, I will step back and start again. It's all the learning you have to do as a youngster because if you don't learn from your mistakes, Formula 1 is a brutal world and he might not continue."