The Racing Bulls driver finished a frustrating 13th in the 2026 season opener at Albert Park, but one of the race’s more heated moments came during a robust scrap with the Cadillac driver in the midfield.
Lawson suggested their aggressive exchange may have had roots in incidents between the pair two years earlier.
“Yeah, I mean, two years later, he’s not over it,” Lawson said, referencing the pairs tense battles during the later stages of the 2024 season when Perez was still at Red Bull.
“He’s fighting me like it’s for the world championship and we’re like P16.
“So, yeah, I mean, obviously I don’t really care too much. My race was already over at that point.”
The clash came early in the race when Lawson closed rapidly on Perez and attempted to go around the outside at Turn 3.
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Perez defended firmly, forcing the New Zealander to back out after brief side-by-side contact before eventually moving ahead a lap later.
The stewards reviewed the incident but ultimately decided no further action was required, something Lawson was largely indifferent about.
“I mean it was nothing illegal. He was just aggressive. Honestly I don’t care. It’s for P16.”
The tension between the two drivers dates back to the latter part of the 2024 season when they were involved in several tense on-track battles, including a controversial clash during the Mexico City Grand Prix that left Perez with damage to his car.
While the pair found themselves fighting much further down the order in Melbourne, the latest exchange suggested the rivalry has not entirely cooled.
Lawson’s race had effectively been compromised from the moment the lights went out.
After qualifying an impressive eighth on Saturday, the New Zealander suffered a major issue off the line that immediately dropped him down the order and left him scrambling through the midfield for the remainder of the race.
“[I]didn’t move. I lost all power and then I couldn’t get it back for another five seconds,” he said of his start.
“A couple of seconds later I got it back and then got wheelspin. I don’t know why. I haven’t had that in testing.
“[It’s] a bit frustrating. We obviously had a very good day yesterday. We qualified in a great position. I think the pace in the race was okay. Just sort of finding issues throughout the race.
“So it’s something I’ll review, but definitely at the end of the day, even after the start through the race we were fighting issues, so it’s a shame.”
Further battery problems during the race compounded the frustration, with Lawson reporting that he was harvesting energy but unable to deploy it effectively.
Even so, he was still able to make some progress later in the race, climbing back to 13th by the chequered flag.
The Racing Bulls driver admitted the new generation of Formula 1 machinery had also made life difficult in wheel-to-wheel situations during the race.
“Honestly it’s not super fun to drive in the race,” he said.
“It’s just constantly managing energy. Running out of energy. Slowing down at the end of every straight, it can be pretty painful.
“But I think for us, we’ve had quite a strong engine throughout the weekend.
“We had some issues in the race, which wasn’t ideal, but I think without that we probably could’ve moved further forward.”
Lawson’s difficult afternoon contrasted sharply with the performance of rookie teammate Arvid Lindblad, who impressed by finishing eighth on his Formula 1 debut and scoring points for Racing Bulls.
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