{"id":102511,"date":"2025-08-28T17:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/102511\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T17:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T17:00:07","slug":"max-verstappen-on-sergio-perez-2024-results-dont-define-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/102511\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen on Sergio Perez: 2024 results don’t define him"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Sergio P\u00e9rez<\/a> prepares to return to Formula 1 in 2026 with Cadillac, his former teammate Max Verstappen<\/a> congratulated him and said the Mexican’s difficult last season at Red Bull does not define what he can do.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Perez and ex-Sauber and Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas<\/a> were announced as Cadillac’s driver duo for 2026<\/a> when the American-based outfit joins as F1’s eleventh team.<\/p>\n

Perez had a difficult final season with Red Bull following a downturn in form and was cut out of his two-year contract at the end of 2024. But following Tuesday’s announcement, he said he has “nothing to prove”<\/a> when he rejoins the grid next year.<\/p>\n

Ahead of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen told a news conference on Thursday he was “very happy” for Perez.<\/p>\n

“When I saw the news come out, I sent a message to him. I’m, of course, very happy for him that he got a seat. He’s a great guy, and we always got along very well … I’m happy to see him back on the grid.<\/p>\n

“How he’s going to perform will also depend on how good the car is going to be. It’s a bit difficult to say at the moment, but it’s a new opportunity and I’m sure he’s very excited for it.”<\/p>\n

Of his 14 years on the F1 grid, Perez’s results boast six race wins, 39 podiums and three pole positions — the majority with Red Bull, including his best season in 2023 where he finished second to his teammate who took his third world title.<\/p>\n

Verstappen, when asked if he believed Perez could get back to his best form, said: “Yeah, I mean, it’s a fresh start now. I think it’s not about one half of a season — that doesn’t define what you can do. I think he’s also quite easy in that.<\/p>\n

“Some people maybe dwell on it a bit more, but for Checo [Perez], it’s a new start. You’re excited — new cars, completely new cars also. He has shown a lot of great things, even before he got to Red Bull, and during the Red Bull times. So just go in there, enjoy it again, and have a good time.”<\/p>\n

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The Dutchman added: “He has driven for a lot of different teams, so he knows a lot about how teams work. Every single team works a little differently. That’s already a very interesting trait.<\/p>\n

“It’s nice to understand what people are good at or where some teams are worse. That’s how it goes. Also, the behaviour of cars — he’s been in a lot of different regulations, a lot of different rule sets — some things were allowed, some were not, got banned, things like that. So, yeah, to have that general understanding of how a great car is, how a car is that’s not fantastic — I think it’s very valuable for them to start with.<\/p>\n

“He has worked with many big teams, so hopefully that will push them forward in the beginning, because it’s never easy to jump into Formula 1 and be competitive straight away. But we’ll see how that goes.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Sergio P\u00e9rez prepares to return to Formula 1 in 2026 with Cadillac, his former teammate Max Verstappen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-102511","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102511","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=102511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}