“I don’t believe that everything is due to just one person,” was the assessment that, a few weeks ago, Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez made about the complex season that he and Red Bull had in 2024, and it is perhaps a good phrase to also explain his official departure from the team now.
PUBLICIDAD
This Wednesday, the Mexican driver announced, just a few minutes before his team, that he would no longer be a Red Bull driver amidst rumors that surrounded him throughout the season, only losing or gaining intensity as the months went by.
PUBLICIDAD
Although Christian Horner, the team principal, has pointed out that it was Pérez himself who decided to leave the team and take a sabbatical year, the Mexican did not express that sentiment in his statement, and there are some other key factors to consider when looking at how and why 'Checo' left the team.
What are the reasons behind Sergio 'Checo' Pérez's departure from Red Bull?
First of all, it should be noted that Checo Pérez had renewed his contract with Red Bull for the 2025 and 2026 seasons last June, but a few months later, due to a lack of results, the team considered replacing him. However, during the summer break, the Mexican driver was once again confirmed until the end of the year, even after changes such as the departure of Daniel Ricciardo, replaced by Liam Lawson in the Red Bull junior team, or Logan Sargeant, replaced by Franco Colapinto at Williams.
However, in recent weeks Horner and Helmut Marko admitted that the situation was unsustainable. The latter in particular was one of the main proponents of Pérez's departure, as he has been critical of the Mexican on several occasions and publicly. Marko, who is an advisor to the team, works closely with the Red Bull 'junior' driver program, which competes in Visa CashApp Racing Bulls (formerly known as Alpha Tauri or Toro Rosso), and would seek to promote one of his drivers, Yuki Tsunoda or Liam Lawson, to be Max Verstappen's teammate, although all rumors point to the New Zealander being the chosen one.
According to Motorsport, it was after the Red Bull shareholders met following the last race in Abu Dhabi that they made the decision to demote Pérez on Monday, December 9, and after more than a week of negotiations over the amount to pay Checo, it became official.
In addition to the public displeasure that important team members, such as Marko, felt towards Pérez, the Mexican's performance was hampered by faults that came from the factory with the RB20. A car that Checo almost never found comfortable, so much so that even the four-time champion, Verstappen, admitted on several occasions that it was a bad car and that he wouldn't "miss driving it".
But in addition to the ordeal that was the RB20, the 34-year-old driver also succumbed to poor strategies and a lack of understanding when communicating with his garage, especially with his race engineer, Hugh Bird. On several occasions, Pérez expressed his discontent over the pitiful work of 'Pajarote' from the pitwall.
And finally, another key point to consider in the 'soap opera' of Pérez's departure: the fourth power. The important role played by journalists and media, fueled by fans of the 'showbiz' and 'Netflix' side of F1 who turned Pérez into the "piñata" of the "party" this season. With every poor result the Mexican driver accumulated as Red Bull began to reap the rewards of not listening to their drivers and losing several employees (due to, according to rumors, the terrible work environment that exists in the team), including the legendary Adrian Newey, the media and other relevant figures in journalism focused all their attention on criticizing Pérez and theorizing when the long-awaited news would come.
Well, finally, the news has arrived, like ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’ by Gabriel García Márquez. However, while there are some sectors celebrating Pérez’s departure from the team –and perhaps, momentarily, from the category– there are more who still want to know what will become of Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez, who never gives up.