Former Red Bull driver Sergio Pérez has offered a candid insight into the inner workings of the Milton Keynes-based team. He revealed that Christian Horner knew his successors would be up against it alongside Max Verstappen.

The Mexican, who is preparing to return to Formula 1 with Cadillac, spoke openly about the pressures of being Verstappen’s teammate and the challenges that Red Bull imposed on drivers in the second seat.

 

 

Living in Verstappen’s Shadow

In a recent episode of the Oso Trava podcast, Pérez reflected on his time at Red Bull, admitting that it often felt as though he could never meet the team’s expectations.

“The team complained about everything. At Red Bull, everything was a problem,” he said.

He explained the Catch-22 situation he experienced: if he outperformed Verstappen, it caused tension; if he fell behind, that was also a problem.

“I learned that these were just the circumstances I was in. Instead of complaining, I tried to make the most of it,” he said.

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Being Max’s teammate at Red Bull is the toughest job in F1

Despite the pressures, he said that he never felt the role was impossible; he simply wished to have more meaningful input in car development. “I knew what I was getting into at Red Bull.”

When I first sat down with Christian, he told me, “We’re running two cars because we have to, but this project was created for Max; he’s our talent.”

For Pérez, the focus on Verstappen was not an issue as long as he could help develop the car and compete fairly.

“I was in the best team, a very complicated team. Being Max’s teammate is incredibly difficult, but being Max’s teammate at Red Bull is the toughest job in Formula 1,” he admitted.

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Horner knew the second seat would be a problem.

Pérez’s insights went further when he revealed a telling conversation with Horner near the end of his Red Bull tenure. According to Pérez, he warned the team principal that any successor to him would face immense challenges. Horner acknowledged the difficulty, but seemed resigned to it.

“At that point, I said to him, ‘Hey Christian, what are you going to do if it doesn’t work out with Liam [Lawson]?’” Pérez recalled. Horner’s reply: “Then there’s Yuki [Tsunoda].”

When Pérez pressed further, asking what would happen if Yuki also struggled, Horner’s response was telling. “We have a lot of drivers. I said to him, ‘You’re going to use them all.’ And he said, “Yeah, I know.”

This exchange paints a picture of a team that is aware its approach to the second car is inherently risky. Pérez suggested that Lawson’s promotion was more of a stopgap measure than a fully considered choice, influenced by the late timing of the 2024 season.

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A Struggle That Was Inevitable

In hindsight, Pérez’s warnings proved accurate. Neither Lawson nor Tsunoda managed to cope with Red Bull’s high-pressure environment or meet Verstappen’s standards. The scenario Pérez predicted — a second seat that no driver could fully satisfy — played out exactly as he had foreseen.

For 2026, Frenchman Isack Hadjar has been confirmed as Verstappen’s new teammate. Although Pérez emphasised that Horner had always recognised the challenges of the role, there is optimism that, under the potential leadership of Laurent Mekies, the second car will benefit from a more organised and balanced approach. The aim is to provide Verstappen with a teammate who can contribute meaningfully without the constant threat of failure.

McLaren’s silent power play as Red Bull loses another long-standing senior figure

 

Perez: “Everything Was a Problem”

Sergio Pérez’s blunt admission, ‘The team complained about everything’, reveals a culture bordering on obsession. Under Christian Horner, Red Bull’s entire focus revolved around Max Verstappen, leaving little room for anyone else. Pérez describes a workplace where even doing well could cause tension and falling behind was immediately problematic.

Every engineer, strategist and teammate was under intense scrutiny, with decisions being judged almost solely by their impact on Verstappen. The result? A pressure cooker environment that many drivers would struggle to survive. Pérez’s account raises uncomfortable questions about Horner’s leadership style.

Was this ruthless focus necessary to keep Red Bull at the top, or did it create a toxic, short-term mindset that sacrificed the development and confidence of the second car? For Pérez, the system worked, for Verstappen. For everyone else, it was a constant uphill struggle.

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NEXT ARTICLE – Ferrari’s 2 cars designed for 2026. More Maranello madness?

The six race run in which concluded the 2024 Formula One season did not quite have the excitement of 2025 where the drivers’ championship was decided at the final chequered flag of the season. Max Verstappen in fact claimed the 2024 title in Las Vegas with two race weekends remaining.

However in terms of the constructors’ championship, the 2024 run in was nail biting for McLaren who once held a 74 point lead over Ferrari as the sport embarked on its final two triple header six races.

Two wins together with six podiums from Austin to Abu Dhabi saw the Scuderia come within just 14 points of their first championship since 2008. Yet at the annual Ferrari festive bash, Fred Vasseur announced that their 2025 F1 challenger would be an entirely new car.

 

Ferrari strange decision in 2024

This was confusing for a number of reasons. Firstly the SF-24 finished the year the strongest, but the Scuderia designed a car for 2025 that was “99% new components.” The team switched their tried and tested front suspension from its push rod configuration to a pull rod design.

But this was the final year of a set of car design technical regulations and the remainder of the field were refining their 2024 challenger. The result? The decision was proven to be a huge mistake, as the Scuderia failed to win a single Grand Prix and claimed just seven podiums all thanks to Charles Leclerc.

Now La Gazzetta in Italy is reporting Ferrari have design two cars for 2026, one for early testing and the other for the opening round of the season in Australia. Of course teams historically have launched a car for testing and then refined it significantly before it first races in anger, but two cars to start the year?

Yet building two different cars before the tyre turns in anger seems a strange approach, yet the madness of Maranello means nothing can be ruled out from the mercurial F1 racers. “Fred Vasseur’s team will present itself to the pre-seasonal tests with different versions of the same car, to best test solutions and set-ups,” reports La Gazetta…READ MORE ON THIS STORY