Former Formula 1 world champion Damon Hill gave a brief response to Sergio Perez talking about Red Bull’s downfall in the 2024 season. The Mexican driver was fired by an Austrian team late last year despite signing a two-year contract extension with the Milton Keynes-based outfit.
The 35-year-old joined Red Bull at the start of the 2021 season and gave way to Sebastian Vettel in 2020 with Racing Point. During his first few years of his tenure with the Austrian team, Perez proved to be an invaluable support for his teammate Max Verstappen.
However, from the middle of the 2023 season, he began to struggle significantly, failing to provide the necessary consistent results as rival teams began closing Red Bull’s performance gap.
But in his interview Desde El Paddock PodcastSergio Perez spoke about the impact of key personnel, such as Adrian Newey leaving the team,
“It wasn’t dominant in a time like Mercedes, where the engine benefits were good. Here, the benefits were very small and there was a great team. I think when Adrian Newey left, that was when more issues began.
“I’m very sorry for them. I know it from a very good source. People may think I’m happy about it, but we had a great team and eventually fell apart little by little.”
In his Instagram Story, Damon Hill responded to Perez’s comments in three words, writing:
“Keyman Close”
Despite his struggle, Perez was given a two-year contract extension from Red Bull last year in Monaco.
Sergio Perez looks back at his Red Bull exit from 2024 onwards
Former Red Bull driver Sergio Perez believed that the Austrian team might have given him a long run.
As mentioned above sources quoted, the winner of the six F1 races said, reflecting his exit:
“The decision was made because the pressure was too high to create them themselves. I had a contract signed in Monaco, but after the next race, everyone was talking about my future, despite having already signed contracts.
“It would have been easy for the team to protect me and say, ‘What do you know? The driver signed it for the next two years.” But that wasn’t the case. ”
Sergio Perez won five of his six career races at Red Bull from 2021 to 2023, but was the only driver to win from last year’s team.
Edited by Pratham K Sharma
