Sergio Perez was always going to have a difficult second half of the 2024 F1 season, amid rumours that Red Bull was considering their options with the Mexican.
After failing to finish eight races in a row inside the top five before the summer break, it was looking like Perez was heading towards his final season with Red Bull amid rumours that they wanted to replace him with Daniel Ricciardo.
Although the switch over the summer break never happened, the team elected to keep the Mexican knowing that another driver would still struggle to improve their standing in the Constructors’ Championship.
Red Bull also did not want to promote Liam Lawson too early, through fears that it would knock his confidence if they decided to run with him for 2025. Perez and Red Bull would eventually split at the end of the year by mutual agreement, although it was clear things started to sour in the months leading up to his exit.
Discussing Perez’s season at Red Bull in 2024, journalist Nelson Valkenburg believe there was one staff member who made his life ‘ridiculously difficult’ throughout the year when speaking to RacingNews365.nl.
Sergio Perez’s engineer made life ‘ridiculously difficult’ for Mexican
Perez was in his fourth season at Red Bull with engineer Hugh Bird, having been partnered with him since joining the team in 2021.
Although there were never any signs of a bad relationship between the pair, Perez would often make mistakes on Saturday during qualifying which would impact him in the race.
During qualifying for the Sao Paulo GP, Bird mistimed the final run in Q2 which saw Perez drop out and qualify in P13 despite having the pace for a top ten. Valkenburg believes this was a trend that repeated throughout the year.
“Partly it was in the car. He is often four-tenths off Max Verstappen, but now there were ten cars in between in one go,” said Valkenburg.
“But in part I also think his racing engineer made it ridiculously difficult for him in qualifying. You can name five times when he was not helped by his pit box. He didn’t have enough time for another lap, and they just expected him to do the same as Verstappen.”
Sergio Perez open to F1 return in future
Perez recently made his first public appearance since leaving Red Bull recently, attending the Feria de Leon festival in his native Mexico.
Appearing on stage, he was asked about a potential F1 comeback and claimed that he would be making a decision over the next six months.
READ MORE: Sergio Perez’s life outside F1 from net worth to nickname
Any decision by Perez would likely coincide with the 2026 driver market, which is when F1 teams will see a new set of regulations introduced for both chassis and engine.
A potential avenue for the Mexican could be Cadillac, who is set to join the grid in 2026 ahead of a full works debut as early as 2028. Perez said he would only consider a return if it makes him ‘happier’ considering he is currently also a father.
Leave feedback about this