Sergio Pérez has spoken out for the first time about leaving Red Bull, mentioning that he believes the team regrets their choice.
The Mexican driver, who competed in Formula 1 from 2011 to 2024 and spent four years with Red Bull, shared more information about his departure during an interview on the Desde el Paddock podcast.
When asked if Red Bull should apologize to him, Perez replied, “Deep down, they are very sorry for cutting my contract, and I know this from a reliable source.”
Red Bull named New Zealand’s Liam Lawson as Perez’s replacement for 2025. However, after just two races, Lawson was replaced by Yuki Tsunoda from Racing Bulls, which is Red Bull’s junior team.
The 35-year-old Perez is said to be a strong candidate for the new Cadillac F1 team that will start in 2026. He mentioned that after designer Adrian Newey left, “many more problems began,” and then Jonathan Wheatley, who was Red Bull’s sporting director until 2024 and is now with Sauber, also departed. This contributed to the team’s gradual downfall.
“In the end, that’s how the sport goes. They made decisions because there was too much pressure they created themselves,” Perez explained.
“There was a lot of stress on my side of the garage… it put a huge strain on the engineers and everyone involved, and ultimately that cost us a lot.”
“People might think I’m okay with this situation, but I’m not… we had an amazing team, and in the end it fell apart slowly.”
In December, Christian Horner, Red Bull’s team principal, told reporters that they did everything possible to support him.
“We’ve tried everything with him and supported him. Ultimately, he decided that now is the right time to step away from Formula 1 and take some time off,” Horner said.
Perez confirmed that he wants to make a comeback in Formula 1 and mentioned he has a new manager. Khalil Beschir, a former Lebanese driver, is now managing him along with Luis Aguirre and Checo himself. They share a close friendship that began when Perez moved to Europe to chase his F1 dreams.
When asked about his desire to return, Perez replied, “Yes, I do, if the right project comes along that I feel is where I should be,” but he emphasized that he does not want to travel the world as a third driver.
“I want to come back because I don’t want to end my career like this,” he stated. “I’ll return if it’s worth the effort to be in F1.”
As for which team he might join, he said, “I’m in no rush; we’ll see what happens next year,” but added that he hopes to achieve something similar to what he did with Force India (now Aston Martin), which steadily grew into a successful team.
