Sergio Pérez thinks no driver will be able to survive alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing as the team contemplates replacing Yuki Tsunoda in 2026.

Tsunoda is the second driver to try his hand in the second Red Bull Racing car since Pérez was axed at the end of last season.

Liam Lawson originally got the nod for 2025, but the Kiwi was dumped after two disastrous race weekend, with Tsunoda taking his place.

Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship™ LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.

But the Japanese star has fared only slightly better. In a car that could take Verstappen to the drivers championship, Tsunoda is 17th in the standings with only 28 points to his name, three of which were scored before his promotion.

Though Red Bull Racing said at the weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix that it will give Tsunoda more races to prove himself, paddock rumour has been rife that the deal to promote standout rookie Isack Hadjar from Racing Bulls into the senior team is as good as done.

The remaining question then would be whether there will be room for Tsunoda at Racing Bulls, though the junior Italian squad is tipped to take a line-up comprising Liam Lawson and academy driver Arvid Lindblad into 2026.

Lawson and Tsunoda’s struggles have been unsurprising to the sidelined Pérez, who said he saw the driver catastrophe coming from the moment he was given his marching orders last December.

“I don’t like criticising the drivers that have been there, because I was in that position,” he told Sky Sports. “I know what exactly they’re going through.

“The minute is signed my exit with Red Bull, when we came to an agreement, I knew that, ‘Poor guy who comes here,’ because I managed to survive.”

PIT TALK PODCAST: Oscar Piastri has lost the title lead for the first time in 15 rounds after a recovery drive from seventh to fifth wasn’t enough to counter a dominant victory by teammate Lando Norris. Where has it gone wrong for the Aussie, and can he fight back from here?

Pérez is understandably taking the chance to burnish his reputation ahead of his full-time comeback with Cadillac next year, but the data bears out his judgement.

Tsunoda has fared worse on almost every metric relative to Pérez.

The below data compares Tsunoda’s 18 rounds at Red Bull Racing with Pérez’s final 18 rounds of last season. That’s not to discount Pérez’s genuinely strong start to 2024 but rather to compare Tsunoda’s form with the results that convinced the team to abandon the Mexican.

Tsunoda is further adrift of Verstappen in qualifying.

Qualifying differential

Pérez: 7.8 places behind (11.4 average)

Tsunoda: 9.0 places behind (12.1 average)

Despite that, the Japanese star is marginally closer when comparing single-lap pace.

Time differential*

Pérez: 0.617 seconds slower

Tsunoda: 0.558 seconds slower

*all laps normalised to 80 seconds to make different circuits comparable.

Unsurprisingly Tsunoda is finishing slightly further back in the races.

Race differential

Pérez: 6.6 places behind (10.3 average)

Tsunoda: 8.1 places behind (11.9 average)

While both drivers collected deeply unimpressive scores, Tsunoda is scoring roughly half as prolifically as Pérez did.

Points scored

Pérez: 49-301 points (16.28 per cent of Verstappen’s score)

Tsunoda: 25-285 points (8.77 per cent)

Yuki calls out 12 second pit stop | 02:17

Pérez was sympathetic to Tsunoda’s plight, saying no driver could look good alongside Verstappen at Red Bull Racing.

“It’s a very difficult place,” he said. “Obviously being next to Max is very difficult, but being next to Max in Red Bull is something people don’t understand.

“There are so many things I could tell you, but it’s simply just a very difficult job for a driver.

“There’s no driver that can survive there. It doesn’t matter if you bring [Lewis] Hamilton or [Charles] Leclerc. Whoever you bring there is going to struggle massively.

“It’s a very unique driving style that you have to constantly be adapting to the needs of Max. It’s as simple as that.”

Pérez’s 2024 fade-out and post-season sacking left him without a route onto this year’s grid, though the Mexican admitted to needing a break to decide whether he wanted to commit to another year in the sport.

“It took me a while, to be honest,” he said. “It took me a good six months. I wanted to come back to finish my career properly.

“But at the same time I thought, ‘Does it really matter?’. If I didn’t get the right project, the right motivation to come back, I was not even going to consider it for a second.”

Pérez was reportedly approached by Alpine as potential replacement for the underperforming Franco Colapinto in the middle of the year, as was Valtteri Bottas, but both skipped over the struggling French-owned squad to sign for the nascent Cadillac team, which will make its Formula 1 debut next season.

Pérez suggested he found the opportunity to start with a new team more motivating.

“I’m very excited because I believe I still have a lot to give to the sport,” Pérez said. “I’m very, very lucky with the career I’ve had, but I want to finish it on a high.

“I believe that the last year has been difficult in my career. I know how good I can be with the right environment around me.

“I feel like people will be surprised how competitive, how good I will be on my comeback.

“I have that motivation already with me. I feel like I have this final point to prove in my career and make sure I leave whenever I want to.”