Few storylines in F1 draw as much outside comment as what it’s really like to share a garage with someone as dominant as four-time World Champion Max Verstappen. Sergio “Checo” Pérez spent four seasons partnering Verstappen at Red Bull.
When pressed on the High Performance Podcast whether that pairing represents the toughest seat on the grid, he answered without flinching.
The hardest seat in F1: Pérez on facing Verstappen at Red Bull
“To face Max [Verstappen] at Red Bull is the toughest. I mean, already to face Max in any other team, it will be very tough. But to face him at Red Bull, with his team, his people, his surrounding, you know, it’s tough. And you need to be the best of the best in all areas. And you just don’t have it, you know, while he has it. All the opportunities in terms of engineering, senior engineering, experienced engineering. You know that everything goes to Max.”
However, this kind of treatment did not come as a surprise to Pérez. In fact, as he continued on to say, he knew what he was getting into.
“But I knew before I came. So I thought, I can either complain or get on with what I have. And this is what I did. You know, the four years I was there, I kept my same engineering team, something I feel extremely proud of.”
Even with the deck stacked against him on the technical side, Pérez framed those four seasons beside Verstappen at Red Bull as something to be proud of rather than resentful about. However, the tougher question was whether that imbalance ultimately worked in his favour as a driver.
How four seasons beside Verstappen reshaped Pérez’s driving
“Definitely, definitely.” he said when questioned whether being Verstappen’s teammate benefitted him in any way as a driver at Red Bull.
“I think, and also it’s shown me, you know, being four years next to Max, he’s a driving force. Although he has all the support you can dream of a racing driver, Max is a tremendous force, a tremendous, complete driver in all the areas. And it really [taught] me on how to lead the team as well.”
Pressed to expand on that point, Pérez elaborated further. “Yeah, Max is a pure leader on how he pushes everyone around him and in performance, he knows exactly [where] he needs to go quick and where he’s lacking. And he’s a tremendous, you know, a hard worker as well.
“So being able to learn that and seeing that in first hand from Max for four years in very different cars definitely has made me a faster driver. And also, I think not having the right tools on my side [made] me raise my level as well.”
Consequently, Pérez didn’t paint his time next to Verstappen at Red Bull purely as a burden. Instead, he treated it as a learning opportunity under the most demanding benchmark on the grid. It was a lesson Pérez picked up specifically from watching how Verstappen operated within Red Bull’s structure, not just on strategy, but in tone.
That distinction became clearest when he was asked which single trait of Verstappen’s leadership he planned to carry forward.
The leadership lessons learned
“Pushing the team in a certain direction, you know, like giving them the direction. Not many drivers can do that.” Pérez began. “So telling them, like, where exactly we are lacking and how we can get there. That’s something very, very unique that I’ve learned, you know, I had in those meetings, Adrian Newey, Christian [Horner], Pierre [Waché].
“So knowing from all those guys, how they were dealing when we were dominating the sport without a really… I would say that the most competitive package, you know, it was tremendous to see how much the effort was behind the scenes.”
That approach, learned firsthand from Verstappen inside Red Bull’s garage, is exactly what Pérez wants to carry into his Cadillac chapter. Ultimately, Pérez’s account reframes a partnership that outsiders have long reduced to a mismatch.
Four seasons next to Verstappen at Red Bull cost Pérez plenty, by his own admission, but it also handed him a leadership education few drivers on the grid can claim to have received firsthand.
