2 weeks Ago By Michelle
Liam Lawson is now well aware of how quickly the tide can turn with Helmut Marko, the motorsport advisor annoyed by the Kiwi’s “too strong” driving against Sergio Perez. Returning to the Formula 1 grid with VCARB after 12 months as Red Bull’s reserve driver, Lawson was praised by Marko after his point-scoring drive at the United States Grand Prix. Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock There was anything but praise for the F1 2025 hopeful after Mexico.
Lawson lined up 12th and by lap 18 had the fast-charging Sergio Perez all over his rear wing. Perez made a move down the inside at Turn 4 only for Lawson to close the door with their tussling continuing into the next corner where there was contact as Lawson ran Perez, now on the outside, out of room. Perez’s car suffered damage with the Red Bull driver limping home in 17th place, last of the classified runners.
Marko believes the blame for the incidents lies squarely on Lawson’s shoulders. “We are brother teams and Lawson should not drive as hard as he did,” the Red Bull motorsport advisor told ESPN . “He [Lawson] reacted too strongly.
Meanwhile, Red Bull Christian Horner called it a lesson for Lawson. “Liam has obviously apologised to Checo for the incident,” he told the media including PlanetF1.com .
“Obviously there’ll be lessons that come out of that. But frustrating certainly for Checo’s race to pick up the damage and lose valuable points today.” 👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates 👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates Sunday’s result means Perez’s run without a podium finish is up to 15 races, the Mexican driver having last secured a top three at April’s Chinese Grand Prix.
It’s cost Red Bull dearly in the Constructors’ Championship with the team down to third place having being overhauled by Ferrari who claimed a double podium in Mexico. This has led to widespread speculation that Perez’s Red Bull days are numbered despite the 34-year-old having signed a new contract earlier this year. Marko though, wouldn’t be drawn on his performance and what it could mean for his future given the damage to his car.
“You can’t talk about his performance because his car was so damaged,” Marko explained. “So there was no way he could drive on the limit. “And also the performance of the car was terrible.
I would say that we could make the car work on the hard tyre or the medium tyre. “And then Checo, with the collision with Lawson it was a big damage. He lost about 60 points of downforce.
So the car was far from competitive.” He added: “We’ll see what happens in the next four races as we said.” Pressed on whether Perez is in danger of losing his race seat come the end of the season, Marko replied: “We said he has a contract and we’ll see what happens in the future.
“And this race was very, very unlucky. And with the damage, you can’t judge his performance.” Read next: Liam Lawson gives middle finger to Sergio Perez in Mexico Grand Prix clash.
