Liam Lawson has suffered a disastrous start to life at Red Bull. He will start at the back of the grid for the Australian Grand Prix after being knocked out in Q1.
The Kiwi driver will line up 18th for the race after he appeared to struggle with the rear of his RB21. Lawson went off track twice during the session, heading into the gravel trap at turn three and onto the grass at the penultimate corner.
Lawson was knocked out alongside both Haas drivers Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg, and—unbelievably—Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes rookie was bumped into the bottom five by a stunning lap from Gabriel Bortoleto.
The Italian had also been struggling to keep his car on track as he damaged the underbody of his W16 running across the gravel. Lawson and Antonelli were expected to be the front-running rookies being Red Bull and Mercedes drivers – but they will both start at the back.
The former was outqualified by both Racing Bulls drivers Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar. Lawson had snubbed the former of the second Red Bull seat over the winter despite having less experience.
A P18 start will not be what the Milton Keynes-based outfit would have expected from their second driver – and Sergio Perez fans have flocked to social media to give their reaction.
Sergio Perez fans give Liam Lawson the nickname ‘Slowson’ after Q1 exit at Australian Grand Prix
Lawson replaced Perez after the Mexican was sacked at the end of 2024. As Max Verstappen won his fourth title last year, Perez finished eighth with more than half his points.
Q1 exits were common from the 35-year-old as he struggled to get to grips with the Red Bull machine. After Lawson’s early elimination from qualifying in Melbourne, many Perez fans took to X (formerly Twitter) to give the Kiwi driver an unwanted nickname.
One fan crafted the nickname ‘Slowson’ for the 23-year-old as they wrote: “Liam Slowson ladies and gentleman,” while another said: “What happens to all the big talk slowson?”
Many fans think Lawson will not make until the end of the season. One said: “Wow slowson out? This guy won’t make it into end of season,” while another called for Tsunoda to get the seat: “Put Yuki in the car. This is unacceptable.”
Finally, other fans see a similarity with Perez to Lawson after his exit. One user wrote: “I’ve seen enough. Welcome back @SChecoPerez,” while another echoed the same thoughts: “Close enough, welcome back Perez give the seat to Yuki.”
Liam Lawson reacts to Q1 exit at Australian Grand Prix
Karun Chandhok fears it is ‘too soon’ for Lawson to be at Red Bull – his concerns may have been proved right with the Kiwi driver failing to reach Q2 in Melbourne.
Lawson’s ‘face dropped’ in disappointment when he found out he is the only driver on the 2025 grid never to race at Albert Park before this weekend. His lack of experience with the track will be a key factor, but the 23-year-old admitted he should not have gone off track in the session.
Lawson said via Sky Sports: “We expected the start of qualifying to be tough, the first laps we expected to be off and then we were planning on building throughout the session.
“Obviously going off in that second lap put everything out of the water, the last lap was good until the last sector where I had a big drop. Missing FP3 doesn’t help any of us but I also shouldn’t be going off in qualifying.”
