Sergio Perez's father makes bold Red Bull accusation and promises to 'cause commotion'

Antonio Perez has alleged that the two cars were not equal during the 2025 season, boldly stating that if were to step into his son 's former machine, he 'wouldn't have made it out of Q1'. When Perez Jnr made the move to Red Bull after leaving Racing Point, he looked to be the answer to the team's long-time second-seat struggles.

After playing the supporting role to perfection in 2021 and 2022, the Mexican racer even looked to mount a brief title challenge at the start of the 2023 campaign, winning two of the first four races. However, from there, Perez's form nosedived, and Verstappen exerted his dominance on the team. In 2024, the six-time F1 race winner was beaten 29 to one in the race head-to-head at Red Bull across Grands Prix and sprints. Such a poor record ultimately led the team to drop him over the winter.

Now, Perez Snr has explained the alleged reason for the huge performance gap. "What I'm about to say will cause a lot of commotion, but the car with number one [Verstappen] was not the same as the car with number 11 (Perez]," he said on the Formula de 2 podcast.

"And if you were to put the driver of car one in car 11, he won't get out of Q1 in qualifying either, and he won't pass the car with number one. If you put the driver from car one in car 11, he doesn't do any better. So it does lie with the car. The cars were not the same."

Perez Jnr believes that his struggles have been contextualised by the events that have unfolded in the two Grand Prix weekends following his exit. The Mexican driver was replaced by Liam Lawson, but the 23-year-old floundered in the spotlight after his surprise promotion.

Lawson failed to make it out of Q1 or score points in the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix, as well as the Shanghai sprint race, and was subsequently dropped back into the Racing Bulls squad. Yuki Tsunoda has been promoted in his place ahead of his home race at Suzuka.

"Especially last year, I didn't get to show what I'm able to do as a driver," Perez told . "Now, all of a sudden, people realise how difficult the car is to drive. When I joined Red Bull, there had been great drivers who had struggled - Alex [Albon], Pierre [Gasly], they are fantastic drivers and they struggled.

"I spent so long in Red Bull that everyone forgot how difficult the car is to drive, so that was tricky. I feel like that if there is a project that makes sense to me - and also with the regulations changing for 2026 - I feel like taking a year out won't have any impact if I were to come back."