Formula-1-World-Champion Max Verstappen defends his ex-teammate Sergio Perez and explains why it “wasn’t always just his own fault”
Sergio Perez was the worst driver of the four top teams in the 2024 Formula 1 season, finishing eighth overall without a win. According to his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen, however, this performance “wasn’t always his own fault,” as Verstappen explains in an interview with Viaplay.
The now four-time Formula 1 world champion says: “It was difficult for Checo because we just had a very difficult car. You have to say that too.”
“The biggest problem in the 2024 season was: our car didn’t work.”
The Red Bull RB20 was “really difficult to drive” at times, says Verstappen, “even for me. And that doesn’t help, of course.”
Did Red Bull not react quickly enough?
In retrospect, Red Bull should have started making the car driveable “much earlier”. “That would have helped Checo a lot, especially since he was still second and third at the beginning of the season. And that was fine,” says Verstappen. “But at some point it became really difficult.”
On paper, this can be pinpointed to the beginning of the European season: Until Miami, Perez had scored double digits in each of the six race weekends. From Imola onwards, Perez only scored further championship points nine more times in the 18 remaining race weekends and no longer scored double digits.
Something like that gets to a racing driver, says Verstappen: “Once self-confidence is shaken, some people react to it more sensitively than others. And yes, I think we didn’t do our job perfectly as a team either.”
Perez is out of Formula 1
But there is no chance of redemption: Perez and Red Bull will go their separate ways in 2025, and the existing Formula 1 contract between the driver and the team has been prematurely terminated. Instead of Perez, Liam Lawson will be sitting in the second Red Bull car alongside world champion Verstappen in 2025.
What Perez will be doing in 2025 is still open. At his farewell announcement, he merely promised his fans “we will meet again soon”. However, Perez did not say when or where. The only thing that is clear is that he will no longer be able to find a place in Formula 1 as a regular driver in 2025 because all the cockpits have now been taken.