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The former Red Bull pilot, Sergio Perez, says “many more problems have started” for the team when Adrian Newey left his position as technical director during the Formula 1 2024 season.
Having led the design of cars that brought the Red Bull Eight Drivers Championships and six manufacturers’ championships, Newey started halfway last season in the middle of an apparent deterioration of his relationship with the director of the team Christian Horner.
Red Bull began the 2024 season in the same form which saw them offering a historically dominant campaign in 2023, but fought after Newey fell from its role and finished third in the classification of the manufacturers behind McLaren and Ferrari, with Max Verstappen to be at its best.
The release of Newey was followed in August 2024 by Jonathan Wheatley leaving his role as director of Red Bull Sporting to become director of the Sauber / Audi team, which Perez also quotes as a factor in the relative struggles of the team.
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Listen to Perez after having accumulated his seventh Q1 / SQ1 released after failing to make SQ2 in Qatar Grand Prix
“We did not dominate in a time like Mercedes, who had an advantage with the engine,” said Perez, who left Red Bull at the end of the 2024 season Podcast Paddock.
“Here, the advantage was very small, and we had a large team.
“When Adrian Newey left, I think that is when many more problems started.
“Then Jonathan Wheatley left, which was a fundamental element of the team.”
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Adrian Newey, general technical partner of Aston Martin, revealed the details of his role when he made his first appearance with the team at Monaco GP
Having stayed with Red Bull until the beginning of 2025 to complete the work on their hypercar project far from F1, Newey played a role as a technical management partner at Rivals Aston Martin, with the team hoping that the 66 -year -old could catapult them in the scene under the new radical sport regulation next season.
Wheatley assumed his role at Sauber in early April, and will supervise the team’s transition to Audi’s workstation next year.
“ They are very sorry ” – Perez says that Red Bull regrets having dropped it
Perez had largely proven to be a number two perfect for Verstappen after joining Red Bull in 2021, but his shape was radically deteriorated at the same time when Newey left.
Having finished in the first five in the first six races of 2024, Perez would not be remarkably reversing in the remaining 16 laps of the season.
He had received a two -year contract extension – until the end of 2026 – after his solid start to the season, but was finally released before the extension was even triggered after his form has evolved into new depths during the last weeks of his campaign.
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Look back on the five victories of the Perez race for Red Bull
Mexican thinks that Red Bull did not do enough to protect it from speculation about its future.
“In the end, this is how sport is.
“I had a contract signed in Monaco, but from the next race, everyone was talking about my future even if I already had a signed contract.
“It would have been easy for the team to protect me and say:” What do you know? We have a pilot signed for the next two years. “But that was not the case. From that moment, no one spoke other than Red Bull Race after the race.
“In the end, there was a lot of pressure on my side of the garage … It put a lot of pressure on the engineers, on all the people involved, and I think in the end, it ended up costing us a lot.”
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Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull radically overturned his car in the barriers and fortunately moved away from the unharmed accident
Perez’s successors as a Verstappen teammate behaved a little better, Liam Lawson only for two laps before being replaced by Yuki Tsunoda, who failed to finish more than ninth in eight Grand Prix appearances for Red Bull.
Perez, who was linked to a return to F1 with Cadillac when the American brand joined the grid in 2026, says that he heard that there was regret to Red Bull for the decision to let him go.
“I know that, basically, they are very sorry, I know that a very good source,” added Perez.
“People might think that I’m happy, but no … We had a big team, and in the end, he collapsed, little by little.”
The next step for the Formula 1 2025 season is a return to Europe for the Austrian Grand Prix, which is live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend. Stream Sky Sports with now – no contract, cancel at any time.
