How Sergio Perez went from being the ultimate team man to being surplus to requirement at Red Bull

After four years at Red Bull, Sergio Perez parts ways with the team as Liam Lawson is named to be the replacement

Sergio Perez parts ways with Red Bull as Liam Lawson named replacement (AP)

Written by: Pranav Mathur

5 min readDec 19, 2024 04:17 PM IST First published on: Dec 19, 2024 at 03:52 PM IST

It was about three years ago that the best tribute to Sergio Perez’s skills in Formula 1 and his value as a driver for Red Bull were uttered in a single line over the cackling static of the radio by his teammate Max Verstappen. “Oh, Checo is a legend,” said Verstappen, after his Mexican teammate had kept Lewis Hamilton at bay from Lap 15 to Lap 21 until the Dutch driver caught up and overhauled Hamilton in the last lap.

Verstappen and Hamilton were jockeying for more than just a race win in the season-finale at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that day. The duo was also fighting for the 2021 title, which Verstappen did win, thanks to an assist from Perez. Three seasons after being hailed as the ultimate teammate in a sport where most drivers look after their personal interests, Perez will have no seat in the 2025 Formula 1 season.

Perez parted ways with the team on Wednesday, after extensive discussions with the team. It was a development many saw coming, even though he had signed a new contract with six-time constructors’ champions Red Bull earlier this year which would have lasted for two more years.

2024 was Perez’s worst season for Red Bull, which oddly came on the heels of the best season of his career in 2023. Liam Lawson has been named to be in Perez’s seat next season, while the Mexican finds himself out in the cold from the sport.

In 2023, Perez finished second in the driver’s standings behind teammate and world champion Max Verstappen, thanks to nine podium finishes, which included two wins in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan. But after constantly being an anchor for the team for three years since 2021 and playing an important role in Red Bull securing two constructor championships, Perez produced results that were well below his standards in 2024. After the season ended, Perez had two options: continue till the end of his contract, though as an ambassador of the team, or just walk away. He chose the latter.

Why did Perez leave Red Bull?

Perez had a strong start to the 2024 season, which stiffened Red Bull’s resolve to propose the contract extension. He placed his car in second position in the season openers in Bahrain and Saudi and four weeks later in Japan, which was followed by a third position finish in China. But this would be his last podium finish of the season. His next race in Miami saw him put up a decent fight and finished the race fourth. This, however, was his last finish of the season in the top five. In his next 18 races of the season, he managed to secure a total of just 49 points, going DNF (Did Not Finish) in five races.

To put that into perspective, his teammate Max Verstappen scored 265 points in the same amount of races post-Miami. Perez’s performance was one of the biggest reasons Red Bull missed out on winning the constructor’s championship this year, ending third behind Ferrari.

The tensions in the Red Bull paddock seemed to rise every time Perez took his car out onto the track, be it in qualifying or on race day. After a point, even four-time world champion Verstappen started complaining about the car, and how he was struggling to get decent laps around circuits, but seemed to be less sensitive to the problems than Perez.

As other front-runners like McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes started whipping up good results, Red Bull had to put all their hopes on Verstappen to perform well in order to stay at least third in the championship standing, and perform well he did. This further increased doubts and shed light on the very problem that everyone had been trying to ignore for so long.

Perez’s F1 future

Perez has won six races in his career, five of those coming in the seat of the Red Bull, with 29 podiums. Once-underrated, Perez yearned for a win since his debut in 2011 for Sauber and finally got it in 2020 for Racing Point (now Aston Martin) after being spun to the back of the grid in Bahrain, will now remain without a seat for next year. His numbers suggest that he isn’t a great driver, but those who have watched him race would talk about how he becomes one with his car once on the track. While Cadillac coming in as F1’s 11th team on the grid gives him a prospective future, for now, he will watch over the sport as a fan.