The final months leading up to Sergio Perez’s departure from Red Bull were particularly challenging. He struggled to extract performance from the car while his teammate, Max Verstappen, continued to fight at the front of the grid. As a result, he faced intense criticism from experts and fans for his underwhelming results. However, few took the time to acknowledge the real issue at hand.
In an interview, Sergio Perez called out the media for its hypocrisy. Liam Lawson’s dismissal—after just two races with Red Bull—has finally raised questions about the car’s difficulty. “Everyone forgot how difficult the car is to drive,” the Mexican driver said.
Lawson’s struggles mirrored Perez’s final performances with the Austrian team. While Verstappen thrived at the front, chasing podiums and controlling a notoriously tricky car, Lawson failed to escape Q1 and finished outside the points.
Now, the real issue is coming to light. Even Damon Hill, who was vocal in his criticism of Perez last year, has since shifted the blame.
The 1996 World Champion took to his Instagram to share Perez’s quote and added a caption that took a subtle dig at Red Bull. “Why didn’t they give you a car you could drive, Checo?“, wrote Hill.
Ex-#F1 champions laud #SergioPerez after #LiamLawson‘s disastrous performances with the RB21 prove how difficult #redbullracing‘s cars are to drive pic.twitter.com/26c5FnS3vt
— Vidit Dhawan (@dhawan_vidit) April 2, 2025
Until recently, speculation was rife that Red Bull designed its cars to suit Verstappen. Even former driver Alex Albon claimed that. However, even the Dutchman has voiced concerns about the mechanical package in recent months, warning that their dominance could fade if improvements aren’t made.
It now seems more likely that Verstappen’s individual brilliance allowed him to excel, winning races and titles while Perez struggled.
Following Lawson’s difficulties, more people are beginning to sympathize with Perez. 1978 F1 champion Mario Andretti went a step further, praising the Mexican for consistently extracting the maximum from the car.
Andretti’s comments on Perez
It now seems that Perez’s performance at Red Bull wasn’t as poor as it initially appeared. While Lawson failed to even get close to the points in his first two races, Perez often fought his way into the top 10.
Andretti feels that this makes Perez “look very, very good.” Hill, once again taking to Instagram, referred to it as a “great quote.”
Sadly for Lawson, he did not get a full season to improve and adjust to the RB21. He has been demoted to Red Bull’s sister team, Racing Bulls, with Yuki Tsunoda set to replace him from this weekend’s Japanese GP onwards.
Whether Tsunoda can handle the pressure and fare better than Lawson or Perez remains to be seen. Thankfully, the Japanese driver seems to find the car much more drivable and is in good spirits ahead of the race in Suzuka. “On the simulator, I did not find it such a challenging car. Of course, it behaves differently in certain areas, but that did not feel very strange,” he said.
Perez, meanwhile, is spending 2025 away from F1. But his career doesn’t appear to be over. Andretti and Hill aren’t the only ones to recognize that Perez may not have been the problem, as sources report that Cadillac—set to enter the grid as the 11th team next year—is in talks to sign him.
