Perez will not be racing for Red Bull in 2025 following a disappointing campaign when compared to teammate Max Verstappen.
Verstappen enters the 2024 winter break as a four-time world champion after another phenomenal season.
He had to battle Lando Norris throughout the year in a Red Bull that lost its advantage over the rest of the grid before the halfway stage in the season.
Unfortunately for Sergio Perez, he was unable to deal with the demons within the RB20 in the same style as his teammate.
Several Q1 exits – including crashes at Silverstone and Hungary – meant he was playing catch-up more often than not.
He leaves Red Bull on a run of 19 races without finishing on the podium and while Verstappen struggled to finish in the top three a lot more than in 2023, he still showed exactly what the car was capable of in the right conditions.
Red Bull apologised to Perez for not listening to his concerns sooner, but the team are so focused on Verstappen and his success, that any adjustments made for the 34-year-old had to be done to avoid compromising their lead driver.
Verstappen sent a farewell message to Perez, and in an interview with the team on Instagram, shared his lasting memories of working with the Mexican.
Verstappen was shown a picture of himself celebrating his first world title and said: “Yeah, I remember this one!
“He’s been a great teammate to me. As you can see also in this picture, without his help, of course in that race, that wouldn’t have happened.
“So, I will always be thankful to him for that.
“But I think what has been the really most important thing is that it’s always just been really enjoyable, straightforward, honest.
“And there’s not many times where, you know, that you will have a teammate that I can say all of these things about.
“So, I’ve been very thankful to Checo, also just as a person, not only as a teammate.
“He’s been really nice to work with.”
Unfortunately for Perez, Red Bull have waited until the very last moment to decide whether to retain him or not.
While that shows they wanted to give him every possible opportunity to turn his form around, it’s left him with very few options going forward.
The only available seat for 2025 is at Red Bull’s sister team RB, but Perez won’t want to make the step down heading into next year.
Perez’s career statistics show what a dependable driver he’s been, but unfortunately, he’s the latest racer to be chewed up and spat out by the Red Bul machine.
Being Verstappen’s teammate is extremely difficult and it’s not yet been confirmed who will join him in 2025, although it’s expected that Red Bull will promote Liam Lawson.
If that’s the case, he’ll have to learn how to deal with the Dutchman quickly, although Verstappen’s message to Perez illustrates how highly he valued the 34-year-old even if it didn’t work out in the end.
