Struggling Sergio Perez took aim at Liam Lawson, widely seen as a potential rival for his Red Bull Formula One seat, after the pair clashed at the Mexican’s home race on Sunday.
Perez, who hoped to bounce back at home from a season he has labelled “terrible”, showed his frustration after fighting on track with RB’s Lawson and damaging his car.
The Mexican had climbed to 13th from his 18th grid position before being handed a five second penalty for a false start and dropping back down.
Perez was critical about Lawson’s attitude as the New Zealander had similar incidents with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso at last week’s US Grand Prix and Williams’ Franco Colapinto later in the Mexican race.
“I had a great start, despite the penalty for lining up wrong, we had everything to go forward, unfortunately there was the incident with Lawson and that hurt us a lot,” Perez told reporters.
“He was outside the track and came straight like there was no car, I think he could have avoided the incident. Luckily I saw him and I opened room. Otherwise it would have been a massive crash.
“There was no need. We damaged both of our races. He did the same with Fernando, with Franco in the end and there are no penalties, so none of his fault as well.
“I think the way he has come to Formula One, I don’t think he has the right attitude for it. He needs to be a bit more humble.”
Lawson, 22, has replaced dropped Australian Daniel Ricciardo for the remainder of the season at RB, Red Bull’s sister team, and drew praise from Red Bull boss Christian Horner last week when he raced from 19th to ninth.
Perez’s poor performances at Red Bull have left open the possibility triple champion Max Verstappen could have a new teammate next season, with Lawson seen as the leading contender.
Perez recognised Lawson was hungry, passionate and very talented but was also critical of the youngster.
“Lawson has had too many incidents…There will be a point where it can cost him too much,” he said.
“I think that he has to have the right attitude to say, look, probably I’m overdoing it a little bit.”