Checo reevaluated
The nightmare season of 2025 for the two drivers who shared the second Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen – Liam Lawson for the first two Grands Prix and Yuki Tsunoda for the rest of the season – has helped to reevaluate Sergio Perez’s performance between 2021 and 2024. During that period, the Mexican had to occupy what he himself called “the toughest seat in all of F1.” This year, Checo returns to Formula 1 with the new Cadillac team, making its debut in the Championship.
Interviewed on a recent episode of the Cracks Podcast with Oso Trava, Sergio Perez reflected on his time with the Milton Keynes team and the challenges of racing alongside a driver like Max Verstappen, whose immense talent is complemented by a team built around him. Off-track, their relationship has always been good: even recently, Verstappen has expressed great respect and appreciation for his former teammate, and one cannot forget Perez’s crucial role in Abu Dhabi 2021 in helping Verstappen secure his first world title.
The dark side of Max
However, friction has occasionally occurred. One notable example came in 2022, after the championship had already been secured, when Verstappen refused to give Perez sixth place at the Brazilian Grand Prix, despite a team request intended to help the Mexican beat Charles Leclerc in the battle for second in the standings. “Something happens with Max. Max is an excellent person, but something changes when he’s in the car,” Sergio Perez recalled. “He transforms, becomes a different person. I think there was something inside him in Brazil that he never let out. We had talked about it and thought the issue was behind us. The whole team thought so. So we were all surprised when he brought it out at that moment.”
This refers to a supposed deliberate action by Sergio Perez months earlier during qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix, where he hit the wall on his final fast lap, stopping the session and securing a better starting position than Verstappen. In the Sunday race, aided by a strategic misstep by Ferrari, Perez went on to win the GP.
Sergio Perez also mentioned the incident between Max Verstappen and George Russell last season at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, highlighting what he sees as a limitation of the Dutchman when things don’t go his way: “Max is incredibly strong mentally and has an impressive talent,” Sergio Perez said. “He’s extremely focused, a huge asset to the team, and a great leader. The downside, I think, is his temperament. When things go wrong, he struggles to manage them, like in Barcelona. He shuts himself off. That’s part of him, but I also think he wouldn’t be Max if he didn’t have it.”
As Sergio Perez prepares for his new chapter with Cadillac, his reflections on Max Verstappen provide a rare look at the complex dynamic within Red Bull, balancing high-level technical admiration with the personal friction that inevitably arises when competing at the pinnacle of the sport.
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