Sergio Perez has shared the unfortunate story of how his one-year stint with McLaren ended. The now-Cadillac F1 driver had signed with McLaren in 2013 for the third season of his F1 career.
Perez was a part of Ferrari’s driver development program and made his F1 debut with Sauber in 2011 and stayed with the team in 2012. He earned three podiums in his second season and garnered interest from several teams in the paddock. McLaren turned out to be one of them, as Lewis Hamilton was set to leave the team for Mercedes, a move that would go on to produce the most successful driver-team partnership in F1 history.
Unfortunately for Sergio Perez, McLaren recorded its “worst” year in F1 in 2013, as he described it in a recent appearance on the “Cracks” podcast. The six-time Grand Prix winner also revealed that there was a clause in his contract that guaranteed him an extension into 2014, but the team broke it and let him go late in the 2013 season.
“McLaren had been the best car in its entire history. They were saying it, weren’t they? They had the front of a McLaren, the midsection of a Red Bull, and the back of a Ferrari. So it is the best car in our history that we’ve ever built. We had been contending for the championship a year earlier. So the rules didn’t really change much. It’s quite unusual for a team to take such a significant step backward.”
Perez elaborated on his plight, adding:
“And it turned out to be the worst year in McLaren’s entire history. This was just in my third year of F1. And there was a clause that they absolutely had to renew my contract. Ultimate, they didn’t renew me, but it was very, very late in the year. They tell me about it very late in the year, and I’m left without a seat. There were no places available.”
Sergio Perez eventually found a seat with Force India (now Aston Martin) for 2014 and stayed with the team until 2020. His sensational last-to-first victory at the 2020 Sakhir GP landed him the Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen, and the rest is history.
Sergio Perez claims being Max Verstappen’s teammate was the ‘worst job’ in F1
Sergio Perez’s four-year F1 stint with Red Bull helped him reach greater heights in his career. He won five races over the first three seasons and multiple more podiums. However, each year, Max Verstappen outperformed him.
Perez’s struggles compounded over 2023 and 2024, and he went winless in his last season with the team. The Mexican driver struggled to score points in a car he alleged was built to Verstappen’s liking.
On the “Cracks” podcast, Sergio Perez spoke bluntly about the double-edged sword of driving for Red Bull, saying:
“I was on the best team, but it was complicated because being Max’s teammate at Red Bull is the worst job there is in F1. I knew what I was up against. At Red Bull everything was a problem. If I was faster than Max ,it was a problem, a very tense atmosphere was created. It was a problem if you were faster than Max. If you were too slow and Max was slow, then everything was a problem.”
After a year on the sidelines, Sergio Perez will make his F1 return with Cadillac F1, with Valtteri Bottas as his teammate. The General Motors-backed team will unveil its 2026 livery on February 8.
Read More: New Red Bull driver branded the next Max Verstappen by RB team boss
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