In a recent interview on The High Performance Podcast, Sergio Perez shared a reflection that perfectly illustrates the ruthless competitiveness of Formula 1.
The experienced Mexican driver looked back on the final stages of his time at Force India, when the team was facing severe financial difficulties.
Perez explained how he played an active role in placing the team into administration, helping to protect the jobs of its employees while laying the foundations for Lawrence Stroll’s takeover.
Yet, just before Perez claimed the Bahrain Grand Prix victory that ultimately helped earn him a move to Red Bull, Stroll informed the Guadalajara-born driver that his contract would not be renewed for the following season, when Racing Point would become the Aston Martin team.
In essence, the very person Perez had helped bring in to save the team was also the one who decided to let him go.
The Mexican summed up the experience with a simple but powerful statement: “There is no loyalty in this sport, and that’s something I completely understand.”
No loyalty in Formula 1
It is striking that, several years later, and after the preferential treatment Max Verstappen has enjoyed at Red Bull—often at the expense of the many teammates who have partnered him, including Sergio Perez himself—the four-time Formula 1 World Champion is now reportedly considering walking away from the very project that was built around him as soon as it entered its first genuine period of difficulty.
Verstappen’s team has been dismantled
It should also be remembered that very little remains at Milton Keynes of the group that made the Red Bull-Verstappen partnership one of the most successful combinations in modern Formula 1.
Following the passing of founder Dietrich Mateschitz, internal power struggles gradually led to the departure of several key figures. Rob Marshall is now helping drive McLaren’s success, Adrian Newey has joined Lawrence Stroll’s Aston Martin project, while Christian Horner and Helmut Marko—the two men who believed in Verstappen’s talent more than anyone—have also left the organisation.
Many other important figures have departed over the years, and, last but certainly not least, race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase is reportedly preparing to join Marshall at McLaren in Woking.
Without rock-solid guarantees about Red Bull’s future competitiveness and about his own central role within the project, Verstappen may understandably feel little sense of loyalty towards the team that gave him the platform to establish himself as the dominant driver of Formula 1’s modern era.
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