Perez speaks: “Verstappen? Incredible talent. The problem is character.” And remember Brazil 2022

Checo re-evaluated The nightmare 2025 of the two drivers who alternated on the second seat of Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen – Liam Lawson, for the first two GPs, and then Yuki Tsunoda for the rest of the season – contributed to re-evaluating what Sergio Perez did between 2021 and 2024, when the Mexican had to occupy what, in his own opinion, is the “most difficult seat in the whole of F1”. This year Checo will return to racing in F1, in the new Cadillac team which will make its debut in the Circus. Interviewed during an episode of the Cracks Podcast with Oso Trava, Perez also spoke again about his experience with the Milton Keynes team and the difficulties involved in being alongside a driver like Verstappen, with immense talent and who has a ‘tailor-made’ team around him. Off the track the relationship between the two drivers has always been good: even in recent times Verstappen has expressed great respect and appreciation for his former garage partner and we cannot forget the crucial role that Perez played in Abu Dhabi in 2021 in winning Verstappen’s first world title. The dark side of Max However, there has been some friction between the two in the past, such as when – in 2022, after the World Championship had already been won – Verstappen refused to leave a sixth place to Perez in the Brazilian GP, ​​despite having been asked by the team, to help the Mexican beat Leclerc in the head-to-head for second place in the championship. “Something happens with Max. Max is an excellent person, but something happens when he is in the car – said Perez, recalling that episode – he transforms, he becomes a different person. I think he had something inside him (in Brazil) that he never let out. We had talked about it and we thought that [il problema] was now behind us. The whole team thought so. So we were all surprised when he brought it out at that moment.” The reference is to an alleged willfulness on the part of Perez in a qualifying accident that had occurred months earlier, in the Monaco GP. Perez hit the wall on his last fast lap and caused the session to be stopped, thus guaranteeing himself a better starting position on the grid than that of Verstappen. Then in Sunday’s race, thanks to a strategic harakiri by Ferrari, Perez won that GP. Perez also cited the episode that occurred between Verstappen and Russell last season, in the Spanish GP in Barcelona, to explain a certain inability – in his opinion – of the Dutchman, in managing moments in which things don’t go as he would like: “Max is an incredibly strong driver from a mental point of view and has an impressive talent – highlighted Perez – he is very focused and is a huge resource for the team and a great leader. The downside, I think, is his temper. When things go wrong, he struggles to manage them, as happened in Barcelona. He closes in on himself. He has that side, but I also think he wouldn’t be Max if he didn’t have that.”