After completing his first Formula 1 laps in nearly a year, Sergio Perez has revealed that “a bit of demotivation” overshadowed his final six months at Red Bull
The six-time grand prix winner will return to the Formula 1 grid next season having signed with the sport’s brand new 11th team, Cadillac.
Perez has a strange tale to tell in Formula 1 as, saved by Red Bull in 2021 after he was dropped by Racing Point, he took pole positions, won grands prix and finished runner-up in the Drivers’ standings and yet he was dogged by rumours that his days with Red Bull were numbered.
Those rumours hit high gear in 2023 when Perez, despite being in the running for second place in the standings, fell short of his teammate Max Verstappen’s standards.
While the Dutch driver claimed 19 wins and 575 points, Perez won just two grands prix and scored 285. He did, however, hand Red Bull the 1-2 in the Drivers’ standings and continued with the team into 2024.
Those rumours continued, however, last season Perez wasn’t able to brush them aside with race wins and podiums as he struggled to even achieve the latter, slumping to eighth in the standings. His troubles ultimately cost Red Bull the Constructors’ title and, in the weeks after the season’s conclusion, Red Bull and Perez announced they’d parted ways.
The late call meant Perez wasn’t able to negotiate a new deal with a rival team for F1 2025 and instead spent this year on the sidelines.
In hindsight, though, that wasn’t a bad situation for him to be in.
“I didn’t feel at the time (but I needed the break),” Perez told the official F1 website.
“When you are in the sport, you are carried away with the fact that you are always thinking about your next year, your next race, your next contract. It’s like you are in automatic mode.
“But once you are forced to step out of it like I was, you realise a lot of things and you see the sport different.”
“In the beginning, the first couple of months were great. I realised that I missed (F1) because I kept following it. I kept waking up for the races.
“I could see what was happening – I was talking to friends that were in the paddock, and I realised that probably I missed it more than I thought.
“And then when the conversation started with Cadillac and we could see that passion for racing, then, yeah, I felt like I still have something left in me.”
“Now that I look back, it was like a dream scenario, being able to take a year out and then get that refreshment.
“After 15 years or so in Formula 1 to get that refreshment and then have all the energy again for what I see as my final stint in the sport…
“I have all the energy now to get back to it, to work with the team, to push the team forwards in all areas, on the simulator. It’s a new team so we’re starting basically from zero.”
The hiatus, Perez admits, helped him fall back in love with Formula 1.
