Sergio Pérez believes Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson’s struggles at Red Bull Racing reflect well on his own time at the team, saying he always knew he would be difficult to replace as Max Verstappen’s teammate.
Pérez was axed by Red Bull Racing at the end of last season after months of poor results that cost the team the constructors championship.
Milton Keynes, then helmed by Christian Horner. chose Lawson as his replacement, but the Kiwi’s results in the first two rounds of the year were so dire that he was immediately demoted to Racing Bulls, with the more experienced Yuki Tsunoda stepping up.
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Tsunoda was an improvement, but only by so much. The Japanese ace has scored just seven points for the team, 144 points fewer than Verstappen has collected during their time as teammates.
While Red Bull has committed to keeping Tsunoda for the rest of the year, his seat is in doubt in 2026, at which point he would be at risk of losing a place in Formula 1 entirely.
Speaking at a press conference to confirm him as one of Cadillac’s inaugural drivers in 2026, Pérez declared the situation was predictable.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Pérez said, per The Race. “I knew that this was going to happen.
“I knew the problems there were in terms of constantly adapting. You just have to look at how the years started [his first seasons with Red Bull Racing]. They started out competitive, but then the upgrades came and everything went away.
“So I knew this was going to happen, and, well, you can see the results.
“Today what I did in the last few years has much more value.”
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Pérez’s argument holds up when you compare his statistics to Tsunoda’s.
The below numbers compare Tsunoda’s 12 races at Red Bull Racing with the last 18 races of Pérez’s 2024 season, the period of time in which his results nosedived to the extent the team decided to cut him loose.
The time differential metric has normalised all circuits to 80 seconds to account for the fact different tracks are being compared.
Deficits to Verstappen: Tsunoda (rounds 3–14, 2025) and Pérez (rounds 7–24, 2024)
Qualifying result: Tsunoda 12.6; Pérez 11.4
Qualifying head to head: Tsunoda 0-13; Pérez 1-17
Qualifying deficit: Tsunoda 9.0 places; Pérez 7.8 places
Time deficit: Tsunoda 0.498 seconds; Pérez 0.923 places
Race result: Tsunoda 13.1; Pérez 10.0
Race head to head: Tsunoda 0-12; Pérez 0-14
Race deficit: Tsunoda 8.2 places; Pérez 6.6 places
Percentage of Verstappen’s points: Tsunoda 4.64 per cent; Pérez 16.28 per cent
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Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Pérez said Red Bull Racing’s problem is that it’s entirely built around Verstappen and his driving style, which even ‘fantastic drivers’ struggle to live with.
“I think it’s just the whole dynamics of the team,” he said. “Obviously they have a unique talent over there with Max.
“When you get there, the development curve they have, it’s very difficult for the second driver that is there to basically adapt to the car.
“It’s a very unique car, very unique driving style, that I managed to survive for many years.
“But it’s difficult, and it’s the way it works. You’ve seen it with great drivers before my time or even after my time.
“I think Yuki and Liam, they’ve scored like five points or something like that. It is very difficult, very tricky, and they’re fantastic drivers, but it’s just the way it is to drive it.
“It’s just a very unique driving style. Sometimes 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 undrivable, and then you start making mistakes, one after the other. You are losing confidence.
“But mentally I was super strong, and that’s why I survived there for so long. I had a lot of pressure, and a lot of you guys [in the media] were onto me, and now you realise the job I’ve done in that car and that team.”
Pérez’s haste to revise history was aided by Verstappen, who was complimentary of his former teammate’s worth to the nascent Cadillac team.
“I’m of course very happy for him that he got a seat,” he said. “He’s a great guy, and we always got along very well. I’m happy to see him back on the grid.
“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. 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.
“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.
“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.”
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The Dutchman has long been quietly critical of Red Bull Racing scapegoating his teammates rather than address the car’s fundamental problems, which have bitten hard in 2025 to deny him a chance to defend his four consecutive drivers championship.
The team’s competitive decline played a role in Horner’s shock dismissal earlier this year.
Verstappen reiterated that Pérez shouldn’t be judged for his abysmal second half of the 2024 campaign, when his form was most dire.
“It’s a fresh start now,” he said. “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.
“Some people maybe dwell on it a bit more, but for Checo, it’s a new start.
“He has shown a lot of great things, before he got to Red Bull and during the Red Bull times.
“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.”
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