Liam Lawson says he has learnt from his F1 Mexico GP run-in with Sergio Perez, but he won’t change his attitude or style towards racing.
Apart from the Max Verstappen and Lando Norris discussion, the other topic to emerge from F1 Mexico GP was the fight between Red Bull’s Perez and Visa Cash App RB’s Lawson. The two had two moments in the grand prix, where the first saw them collide while jostling for track position.
Perez was trying to move up, but Lawson made it hard and the touch left the Mexican with significant damage which eventually resulted in an out of points position finish. The second time they met was when the Red Bull driver seemingly held him up from passing after Lawson pitted.
The Kiwi in frustration showed the middle finger during the grand prix, but he duly apologised for his behavior post-race. Perez felt Lawson’s attitude was not correct and that he should learn about the race situation. The Kiwi seemingly was spoken by both Christian Horner and Helmut Marko after the grand prix.
When talking about reflection in F1 Brazil GP, Lawson agreed that he should be more careful and that he has learnt from it. However, he is not the one to change his driving style or attitude because he is in the sport to win and not to make friends – while also not making enemies.
Perez, meanwhile, retracted a bit on what he said about Lawson after the grand prix. But he still feels he has been aggressive and needs to tone down in his approach. He ruled out about him being aggressive considering he wants the Mexican’s Red Bull seat and is trying to showcase his potential.
Spoke to Perez, tough outing in the end –
Lawson: “Yeah, briefly we spoke after the race, but at the same time, we left the track very early, immediately afterwards, anyway. 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 in the moment’s battle. It was a tough race for us.
“And obviously there’s many things you reflect on the race, and you look over things that could have been better. And we take those into this weekend. But obviously, fortunately, with the time frame of the triple-header, we don’t have many days to do that. And it’s focusing on Brazil this weekend.”
What Red Bull said and targets –
Lawson: “It’s clear, the target is not to obviously crash into any car, but is especially a Red Bull car. And it wasn’t, obviously my target in the incident, either. I was trying to avoid that. So obviously, looking back, maybe there’s things I could have done differently, I could have cut the chicane and avoided it completely. But in the moment, I’m racing as well. And you have a split second to make these decisions.
“So it’s something I’ve spoken to the team about afterwards, and I’ve reflected on, and I’ll learn from going into this weekend. I don’t think they want me to race differently. But obviously the target is not to make contact with another Red Bull Car. And as I said at the time, it wasn’t my intention in the moment, and looking back, maybe I could avoid it. And clearly that’s that would have been the right thing to do at the time.”
Red Bull needs a driver with X-Factor like Verstappen –
Lawson: “Honestly, I don’t know how to answer that question, because I’m not the person deciding that stuff. As I said, I race the way I race, and that’s how I’ve always been. And as I said, I’ll learn from maybe mistakes that I made. But at the same time, I’ll take advice, obviously, from everybody I can. My target is not to drive and make enemies of anybody. That’s not the goal, obviously. But at the same time, I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to win.”
Attitude –
Lawson: “That attitude towards racing, and how I approach races and F1 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.”
Said things about Lawson –
Perez: “For me, this is obviously in the heat of the moment. Now there’s been a little bit of time to digest. I think all I can say is that the race was looking great for both of us at the time. Being on the alternative strategy, it was the start of the race. There were big opportunities and I think there was no need to come together.”
Strange to fight, Red Bull seat on mind –
Perez: “I think we were all aligned in it. We all felt similar. We lost a lot of points for us. I think at the time when you see when Piastri finished and he was much further away, we were on the alternative strategy, we were making progress. We looked pretty quick at the time. We definitely lost important points and at the end of the day that’s what really matters. And no, I don’t think so [it has to do with Red Bull seat]. When you look at the races, the amount of incidents he’s had, I don’t think that was biased to our Red Bull car or anything like that.”
Here’s Liam Lawson, Sergio Perez after Mexico GP
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