Liam Lawson opens up on toxic F1 social media after online abuse

Liam Lawson has opened up about the somewhat toxic reality of modern Formula 1 fandom, revealing he was forced to completely mute all F1-related social media accounts after being targeted with horrific online abuse.

The New Zealander replaced Daniel Ricciardo at Racing Bulls following the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix. After completing the remainder of the season, he signed with Red Bull to replace Sergio Perez in 2025. However, following only two races with the Milton Keynes outfit, he found himself demoted back to Racing Bulls and replaced by Yuki Tsunoda.

During an appearance on the High Performance podcast, Lawson detailed how the dark side of social media quickly overshadowed his racing ambitions, prompting him to take drastic measures to protect his mental health.

His on-track clash with Perez at the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix was the catalyst for him to delete his social media apps.

"It's happened so much now, especially with all that's happened over the last 12 months, that you just honestly start to ignore it because there are so many opinions and rumours and things that go around that are just so untrue and if you really focus on every single one, it would drive you crazy," he said.

"Then it goes down to how much you even look into social media and stuff like that. And that's something I just pretty much removed from my life. Every single Formula 1 account is muted. It's just completely muted. So, I don't see anything to do with it online. So, I had people telling me like, 'Oh, did you hear about this?' No, no idea."

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

When asked if that helped him, Lawson added: "For me, it did. It made a big difference. There are little things that have happened to me over my short career and in Formula 1 so far that at the time were quite big, but I've looked back on and been grateful for.

"That was the thing in Mexico where I realised the stuff with Checo, when I first came in at the end of 2024, and we had our incident on track, and then I came in, and I hadn't even had Instagram notifications muted at that point.

"And it was just my phone... I've never seen anything like it. The messages, the comments on posts, the craziest stuff you could imagine people saying. Just the most horrible things."

After confirming he was receiving both public comments and direct messages, Lawson explained that he then decided to delete his social media apps for the rest of the season.