Sergio Perez Exposes Origins Behind Red Bull’s Performance Slump

Sergio Perez revealed the events that caused Red Bull to suffer from a massive performance slump in Formula 1.

Sergio Perez Exposes Origins Behind Red Bull’s Performance Slump

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez (via Red Bull)

Red Bull’s mass exodus continued ever since the 2024 season amid a highly unstable state within the team. Moreover, a couple of controversial situations regarding the team leadership further boosted the destabilization. Many key figures left the team, which has coincided with a massive performance slump. Now, Sergio Perez, who parted ways with the team amidst failing performances, has pinpointed the exact moment when the whole whirlwind of troubles started for the team.

Sergio Perez couldn’t keep up with similar results to Max Verstappen and cost the team dearly in their constructors’ standings. As such, he exited the team and joined the list of other key figures leaving the team due to performance issues. Red Bull seemed extremely dominant in the ground effect era. However, the internal politics and mass exodus worsened their condition. The news of Adrian Newey’s departure from the team was the biggest loss to Milton Keynes, as the aero-wizard helped the team achieve a lot of titles.

Sergio Perez believes that Adrian Newey’s departure was the nail in the coffin for Red Bull and its issues. Newey confirmed his exit on 1 May 2024 and subsequently announced his move to Aston Martin. This caused many of the crew at Milton Keynes to lose hope in the team and follow in Newey’s footsteps and quit. Hence, Perez noted that a lot of problems started for the Austrian constructor following the technical wizard’s exit.

When Adrian Newey left, I think that’s when a lot more problems started.

Sergio Perez said on the Desde El Paddock podcast

Adrian Newey wasn’t the only one who left the team during the mass exodus. The team’s sporting director, Jonathan Wheatley, exited as well to join Sauber as Team Principal amid their transition to Audi. Sergio Perez recalled when Wheatley left the team abruptly due to the incessant internal problems, which further worsened their situation. The 35-year-old asserted that Milton Keynes lost a fundamental person from the team following the Briton’s departure.

Then Jonathan Wheatley left, who was a fundamental part of the team.

Sergio Perez added

Sergio Perez reveals Red Bull’s ‘very small advantage’ against rivals

The 2023 season was one of the most successful seasons for Red Bull in the history of F1, winning 22 out of 23 total races. Despite the RB19 seemingly being dominant, the succeeding challengers have remained mediocre in pace. Milton Keynes has remained on the backfoot of performances ever since, as McLaren, Ferrari, and others have continued to gain an advantage over them. Hence, Sergio Perez revealed that the Austrian constructor’s advantage was very small to begin with.

Sergio Perez and Christian Horner (via Formula 1)
Sergio Perez and Christian Horner (via Formula 1)

Sergio Perez pointed out that Red Bull did not dominate an entire era of regulations like Mercedes back in the day. The German carmaker’s biggest advantage at the time was in their engines, which wasn’t the case for Milton Keynes with Honda. As such, Perez insisted that Red Bull’s advantage was for a very small window, as the ‘great team’ within helped further propel the minor advantage. As soon as the team started to fall apart, the problems started to increase.

We didn’t dominate in an era like Mercedes, which had an advantage with the engine. Here, the advantage was very small, and we had a great team.

Sergio Perez noted

Red Bull has given their all to get out of the performance slump and find any improvements possible. Times are tough for the Austrian constructor, but they are firing on all cylinders to recover the lost performance. The second driver problem at Milton Keynes is yet to be fixed, as no driver on the grid is able to match up to Max Verstappen’s results with the struggling pace of the team.

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