While the 2024 F1 season was not over and Sergio Pérez was still a Red Bull driver, David Coulthard expressed an opinion about the Mexican, assuming that he could leave his team through a nice negotiation from his manager .
“Checo is a very good guy, but it’s painful to see his resistance to the facts, and I can only assume it’s a management game” Coulthard said on Eddie Jordan’s Formula for Success podcast.
“Julian Jakobi is his manager – we have known Julian and respected him for many years; he is an intelligent manager and good to the drivers. But his job is to make sure the money is there.
“So I can only imagine it’s a matter of trying to negotiate the biggest gain possible for him to go away on his own, rather than basically saying, ‘Okay, we’ll pay you what we agreed to pay you for next year, but we’re not giving you a racing car’ Which could happen, but it would be a shame.”
Recently, still in his podcast, Coulthard decided to take stock of this statement and the criticism and insults he received online. The Scot notes that he was right and points out that he knows how F1 works.
“I gave my opinion on this show before the end of the season. And I had the impression that it was an impasse between him and his management. I suffered the wrath of Mexico, all sorts of usual vitriolic criticism, ‘What do you know? What have you accomplished?’, and all the rest.”
“But the fact is that I only based my opinion on the facts. The facts are that Checo, if it was a personality contest and a contest of one of the most appreciated by the paddock, would always be in the seat. He’s a brilliant man.”
Coulthard does not attack Pérez gratuitously and recognizes his good performances, despite his difficulties against Verstappen: “He has done a great job and won many Grands Prix, and he can be incredibly proud of his performances.”
“But last season he fell short of Max, costing the team valuable points in the Constructors’ Championship. So an agreement was reached for him to remain involved with the brand one way or another, but it is clear that he will not be behind the wheel of the Red Bull Racing car.
