Perez: Deep down Red Bull Racing are sorry [for firing me]

Perez struggled to perform alongside Max Verstappen in 2024 as the Red Bull Racing car became more vicious to control, with only the Dutchman, a generational talent, able to keep it pointed in the right direction.

And while Verstappen won the title in 2024, McLaren took the constructors' crown from Red Bull, something Perez was blamed for by the team management, which ultimately led to the premature termination of his contract—he had a two-year deal in place.

Recently, Perez featured on the Desde el Paddock podcast hosted by Memo Rojas Jr., a former race driver who won the 24 Hours of Daytona three times.

Perez lamented that Red Bull created a pressurized environment, which made life tougher for him and the staff around him to perform.

"In the end, that's how the sport is," he reflected. "Decisions were made because there was too much pressure that they themselves ended up creating.

"I had a signed contract in Monaco, but from the next race onwards, everyone was talking about my future even though I already had a signed contract.

"It would have been easy for the team to protect me and say, 'You know what? We have a driver signed for the next two years'. But that wasn't the case. From then on, no one talked about anything other than Red Bull race after race.

"In the end, there was a lot of pressure on my side of the garage...it was putting a lot of pressure on the engineers, on everyone involved, and I think in the end that ended up costing us a lot," the Mexican maintained.

Liam Lawson, Perez's replacement at Red Bull Racing, lasted only two races, disastrous ones, as Verstappen's teammate, and Yuki Tsunoda, who took over the role since the Japanese Grand Prix, has not fared any better.

That showed that the issue was not with Perez but with the car put at his disposal, with Red Bull apparently acknowledging this, albeit not publicly.

Perez revealed: "I know that deep down they are very sorry; I know that from a very good source. People might think I'm happy about it, but no... we had a great team, and in the end it fell apart, little by little."

Red Bull has been in a bad place ever since their boss, Christian Horner, was embroiled in a sexting scandal with a female team member ahead of the 2024 F1 season. While Horner kept his job, his team did not seem to recover, with several figureheads leaving in the aftermath, namely Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley. The first joined Aston Martin, while the second became team principal at Sauber/Audi.

Perez reckons that hurt Red Bull; he explained: "We didn't dominate in an era like Mercedes, which had an advantage with the engine.

"Here, the advantage was very small, and we had a great team. When Adrian Newey left, I think that's when a lot more problems started.

"Then Jonathan Wheatley [former sporting director] left, who was a fundamental part of the team," the winner of six grands prix concluded.

Perez has not given up on Formula 1 yet and is reportedly one of the drivers the new for 2026 Cadillac Formula 1 Team is talking to about a potential drive.