🇦🇹 Here are some of Pérez’s answers about Red Bull’s system, Max Verstappen and his new chapter with Cadillac.
— How do you reflect on your time at Red Bull?
“It was a great period — fantastic, I would say. I knew I was joining a project that had been built around Max, and I understood what I was signing up for. When I first met Christian, he told me: ‘We race with two cars because we have to.’ I thought: ‘You know what? I am going to come here and make the absolute most of every aspect.’
And that is exactly what I did. With the tools available to me, I believe I delivered beyond my maximum in every area. Everything worked perfectly.
Of course, there were some extremely difficult periods at Red Bull, particularly towards the end. There was pressure, and there were tensions within the team. We had achieved so much success that, I think, people became bored and started fighting among themselves, creating a lot of drama. But they were four fantastic years. Once I left and they brought in other drivers, they understood the job I had done for them during those four seasons.”
On Max Verstappen, Cadillac and other F1 drivers:
“Competing against Max in any other team would already be extremely difficult, but facing him at Red Bull — with his team and his people around him — is even tougher. You need the very best people beside you in every area, and he has them. The engineering resources, senior leadership and experience are all directed towards Max. But I knew that before joining, so I thought: ‘I can either complain, or I can work with what I have.’
That is what I did for four years. I kept my own engineering group together throughout that period, and I am extremely proud of it.
Max is a force who drives everyone around him forward. He is an incredibly strong and complete driver in every respect, and watching him taught me a great deal about leading a team. Max is a natural leader. He pushes everyone around him to raise their level. He knows exactly what he needs to be fast, where improvements are required, and he works incredibly hard.
Watching him and learning from him made me a faster driver. At the same time, not always having the tools I needed forced me to raise my own level.
The only reason I survived at Red Bull was the character I had built. I accepted the position I was in. You cannot fight the system too aggressively because, eventually, it will break you. At Red Bull, I was effectively on my own. From a management perspective, I felt there was very little I could do against that system.
I felt supported up to a certain point by Christian and Helmut. They were happy when I won, but ultimately I was always reminded that the entire project had been built around Max.
Cadillac can become my own project. It gives me an opportunity to prove to myself that I am one of the best, because I have always believed that. My time at Red Bull obviously damaged my confidence, but that is precisely why I decided to return.
When I left, one of the Red Bull engineers told me: ‘Wherever you go, you are incredibly fast, and all of us know it.’ Deep down, I always knew what the real problem was — and they knew it too.
Many drivers will finish their Formula One careers without a victory or even a podium, and it will not be because they performed badly or did not deserve one. They are excellent racing drivers. It is remarkable, for example, that Nico Hülkenberg has only one podium in his entire career. I grew up racing against him, and he is one of the best drivers out there. He simply never had the opportunity — he was not in the right place at the right time. That is Formula One.”
What do you think of Sergio Pérez’s comments? And how do you assess his four years at Red Bull?
#interview
@charlesleclerc