Perez says Red Bull built around Verstappen, left second car as no priority
NXTbets Pro | Published On: July 13, 2026
Perez says
Sergio Perez said Red Bull never made the second car a priority during his four-year run with the team, and he said he carried that load largely on his own. Perez said he felt “completely alone” and lacked management support, with the operation built around Max Verstappen and the top driver getting the bulk of the attention. He said Christian Horner made that clear when he joined Red Bull in 2021, telling him the project centered on Verstappen and that the team would be “super happy to race with one car.” Perez said he accepted that role, chose to focus on getting the most out of what he had and avoided spending his energy on complaints. He also said he kept the same engineering group all four years, a sign of stability in his own garage even as the wider structure stayed aimed at Verstappen. Perez said he overdelivered from that position. He won five races for Red Bull and said he helped Verstappen win four drivers’ titles. He also said Red Bull’s support system was geared around Verstappen, to the point that “everything goes to Max.” That was the framework Perez says he worked under from the start.
Red Bull results
Perez said the setup still produced major results for Red Bull. He helped the team win the constructors’ championship in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and he said his work also helped Red Bull finish 1-2 in the 2023 Formula 1 world championship. Perez finished second that year, a result that showed how far the team had climbed while Verstappen stayed at the center of the operation. He said the organization did not value the second side of the garage the same way, but he kept performing within the role he was given. His comments painted a picture of a driver who supplied results even as he believed the team’s structure favored one side over the other. Perez said Red Bull only recognized how good he was after they had sacked him, or after he had already left. That view came after a difficult end to his time there. Red Bull dropped him at the end of 2024 after a poor season in which he finished outside the top five in every race after round six and ended the year eighth in the standings. The team also lost the 2024 constructors’ championship to McLaren after that slump. Perez said the message from inside the team never changed, but the results still added up to titles while he remained in the second car.
Cadillac return
Perez spent 2025 out of Formula 1, but he has already secured a return with Cadillac for 2026. His move back to the grid comes after a season away and after Red Bull moved on from him following the decline that closed his stint there. The team’s second car remained a pressure point after his exit. Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda both performed worse than Perez had in that seat in 2025, a comparison that adds more weight to Perez’s view of how difficult the environment became. Perez’s remarks also served as a defense of his own record. He said he did more than was expected in a supporting role and that he kept delivering while the car and the team were built around Verstappen. That point sits at the center of his version of events. He left Red Bull with five victories, three constructors’ titles and a second-place finish in the 2023 world championship. He also left with the belief that the team did not see his value until the split was done. Now he moves on to Cadillac, with a fresh start in Formula 1 after a year away and a clear account of how he views his Red Bull years.
