‘No one survives there’: Sergio Perez says even Hamilton would struggle as Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate
Sergio Perez didn’t bother dressing it up. Asked whether Lewis Hamilton could survive as Max Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull, the Mexican offered the kind of blunt verdict that makes PR folk wince and fans lean in.
“There is no driver that can survive there,” Perez said. “It doesn’t matter if you bring Hamilton or Leclerc, whoever you bring there, is going to struggle massively.”
The hypothetical Hamilton-Verstappen superteam is F1’s favorite bar argument, a mash-up of the sport’s serial record-breaker and its current benchmark. We were treated to their razor-wire 2021 title fight — level on points into Abu Dhabi, Verstappen taking that first crown — and it only turbocharged the what-if. But Perez, who lived next to the Dutchman at Red Bull’s eye of the storm, says the fantasy collapses under the reality of life in that team.
“It’s a very unique driving style that you have to constantly be adapting to the needs of Max,” he continued. “Simple as that.”
Perez’s perspective comes with scar tissue. He was the “Minister of Defence” when it mattered in 2021, then spent the following seasons trying to match a moving target in a car whose sweet spot kept shrinking to suit Verstappen’s hands. By the end of 2024, he was out. Liam Lawson got a brief look-in; Yuki Tsunoda has also had a rough time alongside Verstappen in 2025. When Sky F1’s Karun Chandhok suggested the criticism last year was harsh given the RB’s trickiness, Perez pushed back: the gap to Max hasn’t exactly got smaller.
“I don’t like criticising the drivers that have been there, because I was in that position,” he said. “The minute I signed my exit with Red Bull, when we came to an agreement, I knew that, poor guy who comes here, because I managed to survive. It’s a very difficult place.”
The reasons have been debated to death. Does Red Bull build around Verstappen? Or is Verstappen simply bending the car to his will in ways others cannot? There’s probably truth in both. Either way, if you’re in the other garage, the job description becomes ruthless: adapt or disappear. And Perez insists the name on the other visor doesn’t change that equation — not Hamilton, now installed at Ferrari alongside Charles Leclerc for 2025, and not Leclerc either.
Of course, there’s another lens to view it through. Verstappen might just be that good. Put anyone up against a generational outlier inside the organization that’s calibrated around him and, yes, “survival” is an apt word. You could argue that’s true for most dynasties in F1 history — from Schumacher’s Ferrari to Hamilton’s prime at Mercedes. The difference at Red Bull is how unforgiving the second seat looks from the outside. There’s nowhere to hide.
Perez, for his part, is not done. He’ll be back on the grid when F1 resets for 2026, signing on with Cadillac and teaming up with fellow veteran Valtteri Bottas as the American marque launches its programme. It’s a fresh chapter and, crucially, a different kind of pressure.
“I’m very excited, because I believe that I still have a lot to give to the sport,” Perez said of the return. “I’m very lucky with the career I’ve had, but I want to finish it on a high… I feel like people will be surprised on how competitive, how good I will be on my comeback.”
There’s a subtext there too: environment matters. Perez has always said he needs the right conditions to operate at his peak. Red Bull, by his account, is not that for anyone not named Max Verstappen. Cadillac, he hopes, will be — a clean-sheet project where his feedback shapes the car, not the other way around.
As for the Hamilton-Verstappen teammate fantasy? It remains just that. Hamilton has his hands full at Ferrari with Leclerc in red, Verstappen remains the fixed point at Red Bull, and the sport rolls on with the rivalry reframed rather than reunited. Maybe that’s for the best. Some dreams are more fun unresolved — and judging by Perez’s experience, the reality wouldn’t be pretty for whoever straps into that second Red Bull.
