Sergio Perez has suggested that he feels vindicated by the struggles of his replacements at Red Bull, dubbing its Formula 1 car as, at times, ‘undriveable’.
The Mexican was dismissed by the Milton Keynes-based squad at the end of 2024, after a season which saw him finish eighth in the Drivers’ Championship.
Perez suffered with the team’s RB20, an often difficult car to drive, in which Max Verstappen laboured to a fourth straight title.
The comparative dip in performance from the 35-year-old condemned him to losing his drive, and being subsequently replaced by Liam Lawson.
Lawson himself struggled hugely in its successor, the RB21, and paid for it with his drive after just two Grands Prix.
Yuki Tsunoda was next to be promoted the second seat, and so far he has also been at odds with the car, with Verstappen currently in third place in the standings.
Perez’s F1 exile is confirmed to end next year, after the announcement that he and Valtteri Bottas will take the reigns at Cadillac in its debut campaign.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Perez said that the team effectively requires Verstappen’s number two driver to get used to its design, saying he had to “survive” whilst part of the team.
“It’s just the whole dynamics of the team,” he said. “Obviously, they have a unique talent over there with Max.
“It’s very difficult for the second driver that is there to basically adapt to the car.
“It’s a very unique car, very unique driving style that I managed, I’d say, to survive for many years.
“But it’s difficult and it’s the way it works, you know, and you’ve seen it with great drivers just before my time or even after my time.
“I think Yuki and Liam, they’ve scored like five points or something like that [sic. Seven points, all Tsunoda’s].
“So it is very, very difficult, very tricky. And they’re fantastic drivers, you know, but it’s just the way it is to drive it. It’s just a very unique driving style.
“Sometimes I could cope with it, I could adapt to it, but as soon as there was a variable with the rain, with the wind or something, it just became undriveable.
“And then you start making mistakes one after the other, you are losing confidence – but mentally I was super strong and that’s why I survived there for so long, because I did have a lot of pressure and a lot of you guys [the media] were onto me. And now you realise the job I’ve done in that car and that team.”
Perez expectant of 2026 F1 regulations to ‘suit my style’
Perez is one of F1’s elder statesmen, having made his debut in 2011 with Sauber.
In that time, he has driven through two varying styles of car amid one major regulation change, with the addition of ground effect to the V6 hybrid era from the 2022 season.
Perez cited this particular change as a real indicator of how some drivers have struggled, citing Lewis Hamilton’s disappointing year so far with Ferrari as an example.
“This era of cars that we’re currently in with the ground-effect cars, it’s been tricky,” he said.
“With Lewis, you have seen it, he’s done a tremendous job at Mercedes when they didn’t have a competitive car.
“I think for him at the end of an era to be changing teams and getting to adapt has been tricky, but obviously it’s a fantastic driver and for sure he’ll figure it out.”
F1 is now ready to enter a new set of technical regulations, perhaps one of the most radical in its recent history, but Perez is not short of self-confidence.
“We’ve seen it with many different drivers that it’s all about adapting a car into a driving style, that sometimes it just takes a little bit longer than others,” he said.
“I’ve done well in the previous eras, so I do expect that the new regulations will suit my style.”
READ MORE – Sergio Perez makes Red Bull observation after Cadillac F1 announcement
Discussion about this post