Sergio Perez felt ‘completely alone’ at Red Bull with ‘nobody’ willing to help him

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Sergio Perez’s four-year stint at Red Bull is most remembered for his desperate struggles towards the end of his tenure. He felt ‘completely’ on his own within the team.

The Mexican was Max Verstappen’s fourth different teammate in as many years when he signed from Racing Point in 2021. Perez knew he would be the number two driver, but he would not have expected to be left so far behind.

While Jos Verstappen shut down Perez’s claim that Red Bull built the car to his son’s needs, it was clear that was in fact the case. The 36-year-old could not handle the sensitive setup and could not extract anything from the machine.

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Sergio Perez felt ‘nobody’ was willing to help with his struggles at Red Bull

Perez did help Red Bull achieve a 1-2 finish in the championship in 2023, but it was obvious that he was light years behind Verstappen. In 2024, his struggles were at their highest, failing to finish in the top five after the sixth round of the season.

Perez thinks even Lewis Hamilton would struggle as Verstappen’s teammate, as Red Bull is tailored to the Dutchman. Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, the Mexican explained how he felt ‘completely’ isolated within the team.

“It’s very tough. I think the only reason I survived there for so long is because, first of all, how I built my character,” he said,

READ MORE: Cadillac driver Sergio Perez’s life outside F1 from net worth to nickname

“So for me it was like peanuts, and in that regard, being in that position and accepting, I think you have to accept in which position you are, and you cannot over-push the system too much because they just break you.

“I was completely on my own at Red Bull, in terms of management. Like, I felt like there was not much we could do with the system; this is what you get given and that’s really it.

“I felt supported to a certain point, you know what I mean? Like more than that, nobody was willing to do it. I felt supported; the team was behind me like Christian, Helmut, they will get happy if I win a race and so on.

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“But at the end of the day, they will tell me, ‘The whole project is done for our driver and our driver is Max. So for me it was clear and I accepted that.”

Perez was sacked at the end of 2024, but Red Bull’s second car struggles only got worse in 2025. Liam Lawson lasted just two races before he was replaced by Yuki Tsunoda, and he also struggled to regularly break out of Q1.

Isack Hadjar has been a significant improvement in 2026, but Perez says Red Bull now realise how good he actually was. While his results lacked consistency and his feeling from the car was non-existent, he was, and perhaps still is, the closest to Verstappen since Daniel Ricciardo.