‘You’re going to use them all’: Perez lifts the lid on awkward Horner farewell — and fires a warning shot at Red Bull
Sergio Perez has never been a sentimental type, and his goodbye to Red Bull sounded exactly like that. In a candid chat on the Cracks podcast, the now-Cadillac F1 driver recalled an awkward parting exchange with Christian Horner at the end of 2024 — one that doubled as a prediction for the team’s driver carousel after his exit.
“In my farewell with Christian, I said: ‘Hey Christian, what are you going to do when it doesn’t work with Liam?’” Perez said, referencing Liam Lawson, one of the drivers parachuted in after his departure. “He said: ‘Well, there’s Yuki.’ And I said: ‘And what happens when that doesn’t work?’ He said: ‘Well, we have many drivers.’ I say: ‘Well, you’re going to use them all.’ He says: ‘Yeah, I know…’”
It was a pointed sign-off from a man who’d spent four intense seasons alongside Max Verstappen, the toughest job in modern F1. Perez’s Red Bull spell, stretching from 2021 to 2024, delivered the bulk of his wins but ended on a barren 2024 run and the inevitable question: who thrives next to Verstappen when the car and culture are calibrated so precisely around a three-time World Champion?
Red Bull’s post-Perez trial runs were, in Perez’s view, further proof of the complexity of the seat. He couldn’t resist reminding people that Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda — both thrust into the role across last season — struggled to make a dent. Last August, he quipped the pair had managed “five points in the entire season” between them, a jab wrapped in gallows humor from a driver who knows all too well how unforgiving that program can be.
Perez also opened up on the off-track noise that surrounded Red Bull last year and, inevitably, him. Horner faced allegations of inappropriate behavior from a team employee during 2024; he denied the claims and was twice cleared following investigations. In that climate, Perez believes his form made him a lightning rod.
“There was so much pressure that year,” he said. “Christian had some issues, so it was also a bit that I was the distraction. I was the big distraction. No one talked about anything but me — my performance, how badly I was doing.”
Whether you buy that or not, the outcome is history. Red Bull moved on. So did Perez.
At 35, he’s back on the grid with Cadillac F1, paired with Valtteri Bottas — a duo with enough racecraft to fill a season’s worth of team radio. It’s a fascinating reset for a driver who’s built his career on guile, tire whispering and opportunism. With a fresh badge on the nose and a teammate who knows a thing or two about living in the shadow of a superstar, Perez’s next chapter has real intrigue baked in.
There’s also a subtext here that resonates across the paddock. Red Bull’s conveyor belt has never lacked speed; it’s continuity and adaptability next to Verstappen that keep tripping people up. Perez’s parting line — “you’re going to use them all” — wasn’t just a barb. It was a reality check on how narrow the performance window is in that second car, and how few drivers have managed to live in it.
Perez, for his part, sounds lighter. The podcast tone wasn’t bitter, just blunt — the sound of a driver who’s seen the guts of a dominant operation and is happy to tell the story without varnish. And he’s not wrong: if the goal is to measure drivers by their ability to make Verstappen uncomfortable, the shortlist is basically empty. If the goal is to score big and keep constructors’ totals healthy, the second seat remains more puzzle than prize.
So, to the twist: Perez now swaps that pressure cooker for a clean slate. The Cadillac project hands him room to be a team-builder again, to drag Sundays into his wheelhouse and prove that 2024 was a one-off spiral rather than a terminal slide. He’s done it before. He’ll fancy doing it again.
And somewhere in Milton Keynes, you’d imagine, Horner knows exactly what Perez meant. Use them all if you must. Just know the problem might not be the names — it’s the job.
