Sergio Perez’s father reignites controversy: “Car number 11 wasn’t the same as Max Verstappen’s”. Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen, two different Red Bulls?.

Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen, two different Red Bulls?
The theory that Sergio Perez has driven a different car from Max Verstappen during his years at Red Bull resurfaces regularly. It’s a claim likely to return in 2025, especially after Liam Lawson’s poor showing in the first two races of the season and his subsequent replacement by Yuki Tsunoda. And while the young Japanese driver prepares to live his dream of racing alongside Max Verstappen for the first time in “his” Suzuka, it was Checo’s father, Antonio Perez Garibay, who once again suggested that technical disparities exist within the Milton Keynes garage.

Antonio Perez Garibay’s opinion
No stranger to controversial statements, the former politician and Mexican businessman reiterated his belief that Red Bull applies double standards to accommodate Max Verstappen. “What I’m about to say today,” said Perez Garibay as a guest on the Spanish-language podcast Formula de 2, “will cause a bit of a stir. But I can tell you that car number 1 is not the same as car number 11 (which, until the last Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, belonged to his son Checo).”

“If we take the driver of car number 1,” he continued, “and put him in car number 11, that car still wouldn’t make it past Q1. But if we put the driver of car 11 in car number 1, then he would perform much better. It’s the car’s fault—the machinery is not the same! I hope I’m wrong, of course, and that Yuki in Japan gets the best car Red Bull can give him. They’re racing at Honda’s home track, their most important sponsor. He needs to show his pride—they can’t afford to fail in front of the Japanese crowd. That’s why they have to give Yuki Tsunoda the best possible tools to go out and fight. He must have a car very similar to Max Verstappen’s.” – Sergio Perez’s father concluded ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.