Ahead of his Formula 1 return in 2026, Sergio Perez has revealed why he believes he was always doomed to fail during his ill-fated tenure at Red Bull.
Fired by Red Bull at the end of the 2024 season, the Mexican’s career had long since been overshadowed by uncompetitiveness at the then dominant outfit.
Frequent Q1 eliminations and disastrous races sealed his fate, while Max Verstappen took the driver’s title in every season the duo raced as team-mates.
However, after Perez’s departure, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsuonda followed the same pattern of underperformance, both losing their seats in 2025.
Perez has now revealed details behind his time at Red Bull, labelling the team “complicated”, as it unravelled politically, reiterating the challenge of being a team-mate to Verstappen.
“We had the best team,” Perez said on the Crack podcast.
“Unfortunately everything fell apart. We had the team to dominate the sport for the next 10 years, I think.
“And unfortunately it all ended, but I was in the best team, in a complicated team, right? Because being Max’s team-mate at Red Bull is already very difficult, but being Max’s team-mate at Red Bull is the best and the worst job in F1, by far.
“And well, everyone forgot, right? When I arrived at Red Bull, I started getting results, everything. Everyone forgot how difficult it was to be in that seat.
“And I was very aware of what I was getting into – I wasn’t arriving at Red Bull to compete against one of the best.”
Sergio Perez hints at an impossible situation at Red Bull
Red Bull effectively operated a one-car team in 2024 as Perez struggled with the RB20’s challenging characteristics.
This led to scenes of the Mexican banging the steering wheel in frustration after qualifying, but the Mexican hinted issues went deeper than this.
Perez revealed he had little room to manoeuvre in terms of pace, as Red Bull created a lose-lose situation, which set the tone for his performances.
“Everything, pretty much everything”, he responded when asked where Red Bull was unhappy with him.
“At Red Bull everything was a problem. If I was very fast, it was a problem.
“Because, of course, it created a very tense environment at Red Bull. If I was faster than Max, it was a problem.
“If I was slower than Max, it was a problem. So everything was a problem.
“So I also learned a lot, right? That, well, the circumstances I’m in, instead of complaining, I have to make the best of it and get the most out of it.”
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