signed with Cadillac for its 2026 Formula 1 debut<\/a>, but reflected this week on the pressures of being Verstappen\u2019s teammate and the reality of driving a car tailored around the Dutchman\u2019s extreme style.<\/p>\n\u201cObviously, they have a unique talent over there with Max,\u201d Perez told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult for the second driver that is there to basically adapt to the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very unique car, very unique driving style that I managed, I\u2019d say, to survive for many years.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s difficult and it\u2019s the way it works, you know, and you\u2019ve seen it with great drivers just before my time or even after my time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Perez\u2019s departure, Lawson and Tsunoda have combined for just seven points across the first half of the 2025 season, leaving Red Bull under pressure in both championships.<\/p>\n
For Perez, their struggles underline that he was able to extract more from the machinery than most.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Yuki and Liam, they\u2019ve scored like five points or something like that,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it is very, very difficult, very tricky.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they\u2019re fantastic drivers, you know, but it\u2019s just the way it is to drive it. It\u2019s just a very unique driving style.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 35-year-old admitted that while he could sometimes adapt, the car\u2019s knife-edge balance often left him exposed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I could cope with it, I could adapt to it, but as soon as there was a variable with the rain, with the wind or something, it just became undriveable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then you start making mistakes one after the other, you are losing confidence \u2013 but mentally I was super strong and that\u2019s why I survived there for so long, because I did have a lot of pressure and a lot of you guys [journalists] were onto me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now you realise the job I\u2019ve done in that car and that team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perez endured an 18-race podium drought in his final season at Red Bull and was beaten 29\u20131 in qualifying by Verstappen, but his consistent race craft still proved critical in the team\u2019s dominance across 2021\u20132024.<\/p>\n
Red Bull\u2019s current form without him has only reinforced his belief that his contribution was undervalued.<\/p>\n
The Mexican revealed Cadillac began discussions with him about its F1 entry as early as December 2024, once it became clear his Red Bull tenure was over. He will partner Valtteri Bottas when the American marque makes its debut in 2026.<\/p>\n
Perez said that he believes the 2026 regulations, which will place less emphasis on the ground-effect cars that have dominated the current era, will play more to his strengths.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen it with many different drivers that it\u2019s all about adapting a car into a driving style, that sometimes it just takes a little bit longer than others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done well in the previous eras, so I do expect that the new regulations will suit my style.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sergio Perez has spoken out on his time at Red Bull. Image: XPB Images Perez was released by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,918,2072,12357,85],"class_list":["post-101193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-red-bull","tag-sergio-perez","tag-slot1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\u2018Now](\"https:\/\/speedcafe.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/XPB_1324377_HiRes.jpg\")