Perez: Newey will cause immediate impact wherever he goes

While Newey's destination after leaving Red Bull is not yet announced, Ferrari seems to be the most probable, but Perez believes the Briton's vast experience will mean his future team - regardless of who that is - will benefit from his arrival immediately.

"I would say, not ideal," Perez said when asked about Newey leaving Red Bull in Thursday's drivers' press conference for the Miami GP.

"Someone like Adrian has been tremendous to our team, to our organisation," he went on. "And he's obviously a very good friend of mine as well in this time that we spent together. But at the end of the day, there are times in life... I think he spent like 20 years [19] at Red Bull. I think he probably wants to do something else. And it's fair."

However the Mexican is not worried about Red Bull without Newey, he added: "I think Red Bull, it's in a great place. It has a very good, very strong organisation with Pierre [Wache], with Enrico [Balbo], with Ben [Waterhouse]. I think the whole aero group is very strong and we're just looking forward to the future.

"I think you've seen in the past with these big teams, big names, when they leave they will always exist, it doesn't matter. It's not down to one single individual, it's a whole organisation and I think Christian has done a great job in sort of preparing for the next generation of what's going to happen to Red Bull," he explained.

Nevertheless, Perez admitted that the future F1 team Newey decides to join will enjoy an advantage immediately, he said: "Adrian, with the experience he has, obviously he has contributed a lot to the Red Bull philosophy.

"So, I assume he will cause an immediate impact wherever he goes, whatever he does. He's a very clever guy, very hard worker. And with Adrian, working with him, it's much more than a designer. He can influence even strategies, set-up. He could have that influence on a race weekend, you know? So to have him around on race weekends was great.

"He's obviously a very strong individual guy that wherever he goes, he will cause immediate impact. But obviously, It's a whole group of people that he would require to have around him as well," Perez concluded.