Comments from Sergio Perez regarding his time alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull have been rubbished as “nonsense” by former Ferrari Formula 1 manager Peter Windsor.
Perez, who will mark a comeback in the paddock with Cadillac in 2026, made some pointed remarks about his time as team-mates with Verstappen.
The Mexican driver partnered up with the Dutchman between 2021 and 2024, winning five Grands Prix with the Milton Keynes-based team.
However, he bowed out of the team in dismal circumstances – failing to consistently match up with the 28-year-old. In fact, his final season with Red Bull saw him a staggering 285 points behind Verstappen.
Speaking on the Crack podcast, Perez had claimed that Red Bull were only running two cars because they had to. For all intents and purposes, the team was only going to service and advance Verstappen.
He went as far as saying, “At Red Bull everything was a problem. If I was very fast, it was a problem. If I was slower than Max, it was a problem. So everything was a problem.”
Windsor has now hit back at the Mexican, calling him “the perfect victim”. “I think he’s being a perfect victim, I don’t think there’s a grain of truth in it,” he said on the Cameron CC podcast.
The Briton believes that Perez was never a match for Verstappen, nor worthy of having a race seat at a top and dominant team like Red Bull.
He cited how someone like Charles Leclerc could have easily won a championship alongside Verstappen. Perez just wasn’t cut out for it.
“I think if you had Charles Leclerc in the other Red Bull in the last five or six years I think he would have been pretty successful,” Windsor asserted.
“He might even have won a championship against Max. That’s not to say he’s as good as Max right now, but if you had a class driver in the other car, of course he’d be very near Max.
“The reality is they’ve never had a class driver alongside Max, apart from the brief period when Daniel Ricciardo was there. Red Bull are quite capable of producing two very competitive cars, as we saw in the Mark Webber-Sebastian Vettel days.
“So it’s all nonsense and it’s all Perez trying to justify not being as quick as Max and basically saying ‘if they had built the car around me I would have won four world championships and Max would have been nowhere. Is that what he’s trying to say? I don’t know. But I think he’s wrong there as well.”
![Peter Windsor [pictured interviewing Sergio Perez, 2015] has opined that the Mexican's comments are "nonsense"](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Sergio-Perez-Peter-Windsor-1024x576.webp)
Sergio Perez should be thanking his lucky stars for Red Bull F1 chance
Windsor was pretty blunt in his assessment of Perez’s capabilities strapped into the Red Bull.
The Briton claimed that Perez needed to be more grateful for the chance he had with the team. Referencing the limited success Perez enjoyed with the team, including winning the Monaco Grand Prix in 2022, Windsor urged the Mexican to be just a little bit more grateful.
“Well above his talent level probably he won grands prix, he should be saying ‘I just can’t believe how lucky I was to be driving for Red Bull when I did, I was so happy to be there, what a great team, I was there for the golden days with Jonathan Wheatley and Christian [Horner] and Adrian [Newey]’,” he added.
“Why is he not saying that? Saying thank you very much Red Bull for those grand prix wins.”
Windsor believes that Perez let the adulation bestowed on him by the Mexican press go to his head.
“It’s the same old story. When he won a few races early on and all the Mexican press got excited about how he could win the championship and beat Max, and he believed it all!,” Windsor continued.
“Of course the press are going to say that, because that’s what they do. But for Perez to believe it all, and he’s believing it all now I guess. It’s ridiculous.”
READ MORE – Ex-F1 driver lambasts Sergio Perez for recent Red Bull remarks
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