Former Red Bull F1 driver Sergio Perez opened up about the high-pressure environment within his former team. The six-time race winner was released from his seat at Red Bull in December 2024.
The Red Bull team has seen the recent exit of multiple team members, including former Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley and former Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey. Fresh off a constructor’s championship in 2023, Red Bull’s 2024 season was filled with unexpected challenges.
Sergio Perez and the nature of F1 contracts
Sergio Perez signed a two-year contract extension with Red Bull after the 2024 Monaco GP, before being released at the end of the season. Formula One contracts, although binding, do not prevent drivers from being taken out of their seats at any moment.
Perez is a prime example of the flippant nature of F1 contracts, as discussed in an interview with Memo Rojas Jr.
“In the end, that’s how the sport is. Decisions were made because there was too much pressure that they themselves ended up creating.
“I had a signed contract in Monaco, but from the next race onwards, everyone was talking about my future even though I already had a signed contract.”
The F1 rumour mill does not exclude those with seemingly “secure” positions. As far as fans were concerned, Perez’s seat was already being fit for either Yuki Tsunoda or Liam Lawson. Red Bull failed to issue a team statement assuring the Mexican driver’s status, essentially letting motorsports media outlets speculate endlessly.
“It would have been easy for the team to protect me and say, ‘You know what? We have a driver signed for the next two years’. But that wasn’t the case. From then on, no one talked about anything other than Red Bull race after race.”
The environment in the garage and the fall of the Red Bull Racing dynasty
The moment the car advantage fell away, Red Bull seemed to scramble to find a scapegoat. Perez failed to reach the podium after his P3 in round five at the Chinese GP in 2024. After that, his multiple DNFs and Q1 exits drew considerable attention, and he found himself in a rocky position within the team.
“In the end, there was a lot of pressure on my side of the garage…it was putting a lot of pressure on the engineers, on everyone involved, and I think in the end that ended up costing us a lot.”
Perez also noted that when Red Bull lost Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley, the dynamic declined considerably.
“We didn’t dominate in an era like Mercedes, which had an advantage with the engine,”
“Here, the advantage was very small, and we had a great team. When Adrian Newey left, I think that’s when a lot more problems started. Then Jonathan Wheatley [former sporting director] left, who was a fundamental part of the team.”
This pressure to return to form intensified as the season progressed. Perez failed to score a single point in any of the final five races.
The way the situation was handled, with Red Bull breaching a solid contract, created bad blood between Perez and Red Bull Racing. However, the driver says that he has it on good authority that the team is remorseful.
“I know that deep down they are very sorry, I know that from a very good source.
“People might think I’m happy about it, but no… we had a great team, and in the end it fell apart, little by little.”
