The 2024 Formula 1 season saw Red Bull slip from the top of the Constructors’ Championship standings as McLaren claimed top honors, denying Red Bull a third consecutive title.
Now one of their former drivers is opening up on where things went wrong.
Sergio Pérez, who was let go by the team following the 2024 campaign, pointed to the departures of two members of Red Bull’s leadership team: former Chief Technology Officer Adrian Newey and former Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley. Speaking on the Desde el Paddock podcast, the former Red Bull driver mentioned those two key figures, and their departures, as reasons for the team’s recent struggles.
“When Adrian Newey left, I think that’s when a lot more problems started,” started Pérez. “Then Jonathan Wheatley left, who was a fundamental part of the team.”
Pérez also addressed his own departure from Red Bull. Despite signing a new contract last season, he was let go from the team following a dismal finish to the 2024 campaign. After finishing on the podium in five of the first six races, Pérez did not place in the top three the rest of the season and managed just nine points over the final eight races.
The driver believes there are some regrets at Red Bull after letting him go, as both Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have also struggled with the senior team. Lawson was demoted after just two races at Red Bull, and Tsunoda has scored just seven points over his eight races with the team.
“Deep down, they are very sorry [for letting him go] and I know this from a very good source,” began Pérez.
“In the end, that’s how the sport is. Decisions were made because there was too much pressure that they themselves ended up creating,” continued Pérez.
“I had a signed contract in Monaco, but from the next race onwards, everyone was talking about my future even though I already had a signed contract.
“It would have been easy for the team to protect me and say, ‘You know what? We have a driver signed for the next two years’. But that wasn’t the case. From then on, no one talked about anything other than Red Bull race after race,” added the former Red Bull driver.
“In the end, there was a lot of pressure on my side of the garage … it was putting a lot of pressure on the engineers, on everyone involved, and I think in the end that ended up costing us a lot.”
Still, Pérez has his eyes on a return to the grid, and he has been frequently linked with the incoming Cadillac F1 team. Speculation over those two new seats has followed several drivers this year, including Pérez and current Mercedes reserve Valtteri Bottas, who teased a potential move to Cadillac earlier this week.
Pérez indicated on Desde el Paddock that he would return to F1 provided it is “worth paying the price.”
“Yes, I do, if the right project comes along that I feel is where I should be. I want to go back because I don’t want to end my career like this,” he said.
“I’ll go back if it’s worth paying the price to be in F1.”
You can listen to the full interview with Pérez here.
