Sergio Perez had the last word. Again.
Twelve months after a bruising 2024 that ended his Red Bull stint with more questions than podiums, the most successful Mexican in F1 history took a quiet victory where it often stings most: the comparison column. As Red Bull cycled through replacements and short-term fixes, Perez’s numbers — and his timing — started to look a lot better.
Let’s rewind. Perez finished 2023 a distant runner-up to Max Verstappen, then struggled badly in 2024. No wins, 152 points to Verstappen’s 437, and Red Bull slipped to third in the Constructors’ standings. Even an early-year contract extension couldn’t paper over it, and by season’s end both sides agreed to cut the cord.
What followed at Milton Keynes wasn’t exactly seamless. Liam Lawson walked in and, almost immediately, looked like a driver carrying the weight of an audition on his shoulders. Three Q1 exits across two race weekends — including Australia and the China Sprint — told their own story. Out he went.
Yuki Tsunoda took the next turn after sampling the RB20 in the Abu Dhabi post-season test and declaring the car suited him. On paper, though, it didn’t. Twenty-two grands prix in Red Bull colours yielded just 30 points and an end-of-year exit, with Isack Hadjar poised to step up next season. The Verstappen head-to-heads were predictably lopsided. Brutal business.
Through it all, Perez kept receipts. When a meme account posted a “perhaps I treated you too harshly” gag, Checo couldn’t resist a one-word counterpunch: “Perhaps.”
Perhaps 🤣https://t.co/LA9dhG7VgK
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez)December 7, 2025
Then came the reset. While Tsunoda will park up as reserve for Red Bull and Racing Bulls, Perez returns to the grid with the sport’s newest entrant, Cadillac. He’s already back in the rhythm: an unbranded Ferrari at Imola, two days, 183 laps. Mileage may be mundane, but it’s also currency when you’re onboarding a brand-new operation.
Graeme Lowdow, Cadillac’s team principal, didn’t hide his satisfaction with what he saw. The energy, he said, was right. Perez arrived like a racer who’d been kept from a steering wheel too long, and the physical box — always a worry after a layoff, especially around the neck — was ticked off with ease. The team used the outing as both a systems shakedown and a rehearsal for race-weekend choreography: in-and-outs, ERS alarm drills, the little crises that make a crew fluent. When your mechanics come from different teams with different rituals, you stage a lot of fire drills. Perez handled the lot. Calmly.
None of this rewrites the tough chapters of 2024. He was off it, the car drifted away from his window, and Red Bull’s standards are unforgiving. But the carousel that followed at the other side of the garage framed Perez’s stint in a fairer light. The same RB20 that made Verstappen look untouchable also made good drivers look lost. That’s not an excuse; it’s context.
More importantly, the next page looks intriguing. Cadillac gets a proven race-winner with six F1 victories and a career full of elbows-out Sunday craft. Perez gets what he sounded like he needed at the end of last year: a clean start, a team that wants his voice in the room, and low enough expectations to let experience talk louder than anxiety.
It’s easy to forget how valuable that can be in year one of a project. The test at Imola wasn’t about lap times; it was about wiring a team together through the driver who’ll be their metronome. Long runs, repeatable feedback, the same measured tone across 183 laps. That’s how you build habits. That’s how you avoid spending race one doing race one’s learning.
So yes, the jokes will keep coming — that’s part of modern F1. And yes, Perez took a pasting last year. But as the lights go out on one chapter and flicker on for another, he’s exactly where a wily veteran wants to be: underestimated in public, listened to in private, quietly racking up laps while everyone else talks.
