Scott McLaughlin claps back at troll criticizing his opinion on Liam Lawson, claims to “crush him by seconds” in racing battle

Scott McLaughlin recently fired back at a troll who criticized his opinion on Liam Lawson’s exit from Red Bull Racing. The New Zealand driver was axed from the Austrian outfit just two races into the 2025 F1 season.

The IndyCar star, who appeared far from pleased with Red Bull’s decision, shared his thoughts on the situation involving his fellow countryman at the Milton Keynes-based team.

In a post on X, Scott McLaughlin outlined several reasons he deemed the axing of the 23-year-old unfair, including the need for Red Bull Racing to have given Lawson the chance to race at a track he had previously competed on in recent years.

However, it appears the Team Penske driver defending Lawson was not well received, with some fans pushing back. One user, in particular, dismissed McLaughlin’s argument, stating:

“Tracks he hasn’t driven before” should never be on the excuse list for a professional racing driver, less so one deemed good enough for an #F1 seat.”

Hitting back at the fan, Scott McLaughlin responded and subtly posed a challenge to the user:

“Ok, let’s go to Bathurst in whatever car you want, one-on-one, and I don’t want you to give me an excuse that you haven’t driven there before when I crush you by seconds 😂”

Liam Lawson’s axing from the Red Bull team comes after just two Grands Prix of the 2025 season, in which he failed to secure a points finish. Lawson is replaced by Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda by Red Bull Racing.

Scott McLaughlin speaks on his Thermal Club race

Scott McLaughlin at the Thermal Club circuit - Source: Getty

Scott McLaughlin also shared his thoughts on the recently concluded IndyCar Thermal Club Grand Prix event. The New Zealand driver was forced to retire from the race due to a hybrid system issue.

The 31-year-old, who finished fourth in the St. Pete race, came into the Palm Springs race with hopes of salvaging his weekend and scoring valuable points. However, things did not go as planned, as he spun on the first lap of the Grand Prix and ultimately retired after 53 laps.

Reflecting on the challenging weekend he endured at the California event on the Conor Daly Podcast, Scott McLaughlin stated (41:18 onwards):

“Probably one of the worst weekends in my IndyCar career. Just everything that went wrong, went wrong, and nothing really went good.

But you look at it, it's a building block. I actually felt like Sunday, we had a really, really fast car; unfortunately, we couldn't show it. I mean, I started 25 seconds off the lead, and by the end of the first stop, I was right on the tail of the field and sort of back in the game."

Scott McLaughlin has so far not had the dream start to the 2025 IndyCar season that he would have hoped for. He failed to convert his pole position into a race victory at the season-opening St. Petersburg Grand Prix, and he was unable to improve on that at the Thermal Club event.

The seven-time IndyCar race winner will now shift his focus to achieving a better result at the next race on the series calendar, the Long Beach Grand Prix in California on April 13.