Liam Lawson’s Untelevised Radio Reveals F1 Feud with Sergio Perez
Untelevised team radio from the 2026 Australian Grand Prix has revealed the moment Liam Lawson called Sergio Perez “f**king sucks” during their heated battle at Albert Park.
The incident follows a minor paddock altercation between the two drivers after the race in Melbourne, witnessed by.
Lawson and Perez’s rivalry dates back to 2024, when they competed for a Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen. It reached a boiling point at that year’s Mexican Grand Prix, Perez’s home race, where Lawson was seen giving Perez the middle finger on track.
Lawson eventually secured the Red Bull seat for 2025 but lasted only two race weekends before being demoted back to the Racing Bulls team.
Perez, meanwhile, took aim at Lawson last year, claiming—incorrectly—that Lawson and his successor, Yuki Tsunoda, scored “five points” between them in the second Red Bull seat.
After sitting out the entirety of last season, Perez has returned to F1 for 2026 with the new Cadillac team, reigniting one of F1’s most talked-about rivalries.
Lawson vs Perez: Heated Battle and Untelevised Radio at Australian GP
Sergio Perez was lapped three times en route to 16th place on his return at last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, while Liam Lawson finished 13th after a poor start saw him drop to the back of the field.
The pair were embroiled in a tense battle in the early stages of the race. Untelevised team radio revealed Perez asking his race engineer, Carlo Pasetti, to confirm the identity of the driver behind him twice as Lawson closed in.
Lap 15 exchange:
Perez: “Who is behind me?”
Pasetti: “He will be fine. He’s still on hards. Replace the steering wheel if everything’s OK.”
Perez: “Who is behind? Who is behind?”
Pasetti: “Behind you is Lawson. Lawson.”
As Lawson approached, Perez defended aggressively, briefly edging the Racing Bulls driver onto the grass at Turn 11. Lawson’s race engineer, Alexandre Iliopoulos, witnessed the move:
Lawson: “Are you seeing this, bro?”
Iliopoulos: “I did see that. You’ll get him, you’ll get him.”
The battle continued with Perez nudging Lawson off track as he attempted a move around Turn 4, only for Lawson to complete the pass into Turn 11. The two drivers even made tyre-to-tyre contact on the high-speed approach to Turn 11, prompting Lawson to radio:
Lawson: “That guy f**king sucks, bro.”
Perez: “[Laughs] What happened to this guy?”
editor Mat Coch reported that a minor skirmish also took place in the paddock after the race, with Perez brushing past Lawson during post-race media sessions.
Lawson told and other media outlets that Perez’s aggressive defending showed he is still “not over” losing his Red Bull seat to him in late 2024:
“Two years later, he’s not over it. He’s fighting me like it’s for the world championship and we’re P16. Obviously I don’t really care too much. My race was already over at that point, so we’ll just move on from it.”
Lawson dismissed any notion of a penalty:
“It was nothing illegal, he was just aggressive. Honestly, I don’t care. It’s for P16.”
Perez added:
“For me, it was just racing. It was a bit of fun racing and that’s really it. I was in a much slower car, so I think it was just fine to race.”
Additional reporting by Mat Coch.