Perez was released by Red Bull at the end of 2024 despite helping the team to consecutive constructors’ championships and finishing second in the standings in 2023.
He has since signed with Cadillac for its 2026 Formula 1 debut, but reflected this week on the pressures of being Verstappen’s teammate and the reality of driving a car tailored around the Dutchman’s extreme style.
“Obviously, they have a unique talent over there with Max,” Perez told Sky Sports.
“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, I’d say, to survive for many years.
“But it’s difficult and it’s the way it works, you know, and you’ve seen it with great drivers just before my time or even after my time.”
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Since Perez’s departure, Lawson and Tsunoda have combined for just seven points across the first half of the 2025 season, leaving Red Bull under pressure in both championships.
For Perez, their struggles underline that he was able to extract more from the machinery than most.
“I think Yuki and Liam, they’ve scored like five points or something like that,” he said. “So it is very, very difficult, very tricky.
“And they’re fantastic drivers, you know, but it’s just the way it is to drive it. It’s just a very unique driving style.”
The 35-year-old admitted that while he could sometimes adapt, the car’s knife-edge balance often left him exposed.
“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 undriveable,” he said.
“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, because I did have a lot of pressure and a lot of you guys [journalists] were onto me.
“And now you realise the job I’ve done in that car and that team.”
Perez endured an 18-race podium drought in his final season at Red Bull and was beaten 29–1 in qualifying by Verstappen, but his consistent race craft still proved critical in the team’s dominance across 2021–2024.
Red Bull’s current form without him has only reinforced his belief that his contribution was undervalued.
The Mexican revealed Cadillac began discussions with him about its F1 entry as early as December 2024, once it became clear his Red Bull tenure was over. He will partner Valtteri Bottas when the American marque makes its debut in 2026.
Perez said that he believes the 2026 regulations, which will place less emphasis on the ground-effect cars that have dominated the current era, will play more to his strengths.
“We’ve seen it with many different drivers that it’s all about adapting a car into a driving style, that sometimes it just takes a little bit longer than others,” he said.
“I’ve done well in the previous eras, so I do expect that the new regulations will suit my style.”
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