{"id":835893,"date":"2026-07-30T12:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T12:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835893\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T12:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T12:52:12","slug":"sergio-perez-lifts-lid-on-toughest-f1-seat-alongside-max-verstappen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835893\/","title":{"rendered":"Sergio Perez lifts lid on &#8220;toughest&#8221; F1 seat alongside Max Verstappen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/sergio-perez\/9328\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sergio Perez<\/a> has described partnering with four-time champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/max-verstappen\/17529\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Max\u00a0Verstappen<\/a> at Red Bull as the &#8220;toughest&#8221; job in Formula 1.<\/p>\n<p>Perez drove for Red Bull from 2021 to the end of 2024 before he was replaced by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/liam-lawson\/451769\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Liam Lawson<\/a> for the 2025 season. After taking a year out of the championship, the Mexican signed with new F1 team Cadillac for 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The Milton Keynes outfit has struggled for some time to find a driver who is able to extract the same level of performance from its machinery as Verstappen does.<\/p>\n<p>While Lawson stepped up to the seat for 2025, he was replaced after just two race weekends by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/yuki-tsunoda\/828523\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Yuki Tsunoda<\/a>. The Japanese driver remained in the position until the end of the year before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/isack-hadjar\/827922\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Isack Hadjar<\/a> was signed for 2026.<\/p>\n<p>During an appearance on the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/nHRPU3VArYs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-custom-text=\"1\">High Performance<\/a> podcast, Perez reflected on his four-year stint with the team. &#8220;To face Max at Red Bull is the toughest,&#8221; Perez admitted. &#8220;To face Max in any other team will be very tough, but to face him at Red Bull with his team, his people, it&#8217;s tough.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785415932_902_max-verstappen-red-bull-racing.jpg\" alt=\"Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You need the best of the best in all areas, and you just don&#8217;t have it, while he has it all. All the opportunities in terms of engineering, senior engineering, experienced engineering &#8211; everything goes to Max.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite the\u00a0difficulties, Perez insists he accepted the reality early on in his time beside Verstappen. &#8220;But I knew it before I came. So I thought I can either complain or get on with what I have, and this is what I did. For the four years I was there, I kept my same engineering team, which is something I feel extremely proud of.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After the first half of the season with Cadillac, which joined the grid in 2026 as the 11th team, Perez sits 22nd in the drivers&#8217; championship.<\/p>\n<p>            We want your opinion!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sergio Perez has described partnering with four-time champion Max\u00a0Verstappen at Red Bull as the &#8220;toughest&#8221; job in Formula&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,27235,291612,2190,2191,291611,82,4962],"class_list":["post-835893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-hungaroring","tag-hungaroring-pirelli-test","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sergio-perez","tag-sergio-perez-lifts-lid-on-toughest-f1-seat-alongside-max-verstappen","tag-sports","tag-trendingteam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}