Liam Lawson opens up about the online abuse he endured at the start of his F1 career. The young New Zealander was called up in 2024 to replace Daniel Ricciardo at Racing Bulls. During his second appearance for the team, the Mexico City GP, he clashed with Red Bull driver Sergio Pérez. In a heated duel, tempers flared – so much so that Lawson was flooded with hate messages afterwards.
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Because Lawson replaced fan favorite Ricciardo, he immediately found himself on thin ice. Many Red Bull fans were initially not convinced by the young driver, who had only made a handful of substitute appearances a year earlier. The fight with Pérez was fuel to the fire for his critics, especially within the Mexican’s fan base. To make matters worse, Lawson also gave the middle finger to Checo, something for which he later apologized.
This did little to calm the storm on social media. Immediately after the race, the hate messages poured in rapidly, Lawson recalled in the High Performance podcast. “There have been a few things in my short F1 career that felt very big at the time, but looking back now, I am grateful for them,” he said candidly. “Mexico was definitely one of those moments. I returned to Formula 1 in 2024 and had that incident with Checo on the track. When I got back to the garage, my Instagram notifications were still on.”
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Unbelievable reactions
“What happened on my phone then… I had never seen anything like it,” Lawson continued seriously. “The messages, the reactions; people said the most bizarre things you can imagine. Even now, when I look back at what some people said, it’s really unbelievable.” The New Zealander then decided to delete all his social media accounts, although he is now active again on various platforms.
Online hate remains a hot topic within Formula 1. During the last British GP, the FIA drew attention to a special campaign against online abuse, initiated by chairman Mohammed Ben Sulayem. Tuesday, July 7 was dedicated to United Against Online Abuse.
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