After leaving Red Bull, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon remained rather reserved when asked about the situation inside the stable from Milton Keynes, where we are watching probably the greatest internal dominance in the history of Formula 1. Gasly, Albon, Pérez, Lawson or Cunoda could not get close to Max Verstappen. However, few of them openly talked about it.
That might change now with Sergio Pérez. The latter also remained diplomatic in interviews in 2025, perhaps due to contractual obligations to Red Bull, but after the New Year his interview with the Cracks Podcast was published, in which he went much further when commenting on his time in Milton Keynes.
According to the words of the Mexican racer, he already knew at the time of his arrival at Red Bull that he could not beat Max Verstappen. How? Christian Horner himself told him. “I was in the best team, but also in a complicated team. Being Max’s team-mate is very challenging in itself, but being his team-mate at Red Bull is by far the worst job in Formula 1.” he declared Pérez.
“I knew what I was getting into. When I sat down with Christian, he told me: ‘We drive two cars because we have to, but this project was created for Max. He is our talent.’ I was aware of that. I told him, ‘It doesn’t matter. I will develop the car and support the team’,’ mentions the Mexican racer.
It must be said that Pérez had no choice at the time of signing the contract with Red Bull. For many years he worked in the Force India team, which was later renamed to Racing Point. He signed a contract with Sebastian Vettel for 2021, and Checo had to choose between Red Bull and leaving F1. Naturally, he reached for a seat in the top team, although his perspective was said not to be bright from the beginning.
Despite this, Pérez managed to get close and beat Verstappen a few times at the beginning of the 2022 and 2023 seasons. “The team complained about everything. Everything was a problem at Red Bull,” he declared Pérez.
“When I was faster, it was a problem; when I was slower than Max, it was also a problem. There was a very tense atmosphere. I found that these were simply the circumstances I was put in. Instead of complaining, I tried to make the most of it.” he added Pérez.
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