Ahead of his return to the grid, Sergio Perez reflects on the trials and tribulations of being Max Verstappen's 'team' mate.

Following a disastrous 2024 campaign, and despite still having two years on his contract, the Mexican was dropped in favour of Liam Lawson, who survived two races before being demoted back to Red Bull's junior team and while Yuki Tsunoda struggled, things weren't too easy for Verstappen himself, thereby suggesting that it wasn't necessarily the second driver who was always at fault.

However, once the upgrades began arriving, the Dutchman mounted the comeback of comebacks and came within a couple of points of claiming his fifth successive title, and one that many feel would have been his most convincing.

Returning to the grid with Cadillac, Perez insists that the team is built around the Dutchman and fears that the Austrian outfit is in decline.

"I was in the best team but it was complicated because being Max's teammate at Red Bull is the worst job there is in F1," he tells Oso Trava's Cracks Podcast.

"Everyone forgot, didn't they?" he continues. "When I arrived at Red Bull, I started getting results and everything, and everyone forgot how difficult it was to be in that seat.

"I was very aware of what I was getting into," he admits. I arrived at Red Bull and they put you up against one of the greatest drivers in history.

"I knew what I was up against," he continues. "This project is built for Max. When I first sat down with Christian, he told me: 'Look, we're going to race with two cars because we have to race with two cars. But this project has been created for Max. Max is our talent'. It's like if Carlos Slim builds a team and I'm his driver, right? And you hire a Dutch guy. So, it's the same thing.

"That's what I was stepping into, and I was very aware of it. I told him: 'It doesn't matter. In this team I'm going to develop the car, I'm going to support the car, I'm going to support the team'.

"But everything was a problem," he continues, "if I was faster than Max it was a problem, a very tense atmosphere was created; it was a problem if you were faster than Max. If you were too slow and Max was slow then everything was a problem."

The six-time race winner reveals that the rules overhaul of 2022 offered him his biggest opportunity to take on his teammate.

"When the car by mistake came out very heavy, we had a very heavy car with the weight distribution too far forward, right? So, it was much, much more stable, it was always what I was looking for.

"So, at that moment, I remember that in the simulator I was faster than Max, and I was already arriving at the race weekends thinking about winning the race, and everything came automatically.

"As a driver, when you don't have to think about how to drive, about what the car is going to do, everything comes automatically. And then we had a car that maybe wasn't so much in Max's style, and in 2022 I started fighting for the championship with him... until the upgrades arrived.

"When upgrades arrive, there is a very clear direction in which the team has to go," he explains, "and that's when I start to have problems. Because I no longer know what the car is going to do in the corner, I'm already thinking about not crashing, and then the crashes start, the accidents start. You don't have 100% control.

"And then the same thing happens in 2023. The team builds a much more stable car for both drivers, but as soon as the upgrades arrive and I start fighting for the championship with Max, he wins one race, I win another, he wins one, I win another, meaning that over four races he won two and I won two, so we were very evenly matched.

"And when we get to Barcelona, from fighting at the front, I go to being a second per lap slower. I no longer had control of the car. So, then all this pressure starts.

"All this pressure, which was very hard because, well, the one at fault is the driver, right? Because you're not focused, because you're doing too many commercials, or because you're involved in other things."

About to take one of its biggest gambles, in terms of producing its own engine in partnership with Ford, and with senior personnel leaving on a regular basis, the Mexican fears for the Austrian outfit.

"We had the best team, unfortunately everything was destroyed," he says. "We had the team to have dominated the sport for the next ten years, I think, and unfortunately it all ended."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Celtic Tiger, 14 hours ago

"If Max has a contract with the team and in that contract it stipulates that Max gets priority support then it is what it is. Drivers having priority clauses in their contracts with their team is nothing new and has been a thing for top drivers for decades. Its nothing to bemoan or blame. The fact Sergio admits that (to RB's credit) Horner laid it out for him as plain as day from the outset that they are indeed Max's team, they want a wing-man not a challenger, he still agreed to that reality and signed anyway. A bit ridiculous to shout "not fair" at that point.
I also don't think it was the case that Perez got slower, its just that Max got faster. He couldn't adjust to the updates and the end result is Perez looking like a muppet out on track. His talent hit a wall, he couldn't find a way to drive the car and inevitably caved into the pressure, yet again, when placed in a top team. This ego recovery tour or whatever he's on is cringe, granted Red Bull treat the bulk of their driver's like sh*te and its a shame but Perez is blessed to be back into Formula One. He should be looking forward and letting his results on track justify his return."

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2. Posted by Chester, 20 hours ago

"Sour grapes. Like Bottas, Sergio is not a top-tier driver. Max likes a different type of car than Sergio. How is that a problem? Who in the right mind would not give Max the car he prefers?"

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3. Posted by dejan, 22 hours ago

"I don't think that Red Bull designs the cars deliberately to disadvantage their second drivers, just to benefit Max. I could understand with a marginal car, however they were so dominant in 22 and start of 23 that it would have made sense to maximize team performance and not optimize for a single driver."

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4. Posted by Wokingchap, 23 hours ago

"Been waiting for this confirmation, thanks Sergio. Not surprised at their dastardly tactics to keep him behind max."

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"I had the worst job in F1," says Perez

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