Sergio Perez shows gratitude to F1 icon for speaking up about Red Bull

During the F1 TV pre-race show at Monza, the Colombian had weighed in on the Red Bull Racing outfit after fellow TV reporter Lawrence Barretto had detailed that the Milton Keynes-based outfit were looking more towards developing their 2026 cars to fit both their drivers than the preference of Max Verstappen alone.

Montoya, however, was quick to stress that despite Red Bull having this approach, things would change when the Dutch driver gets to make suggestions about the car to the team.

“Are they really [going to do that]?” he asked Barretto. “The baseline probably is going to [go in that direction], but once Max drives it and he goes, ‘I don’t like this, it needs to go this way’, that’s where the team is going to have to make a decision, ‘Do we just go Max’s way again, or do we go generic?’.

However, following up on his comments during his appearance on the AS Colombia YouTube channel, Montoya revealed he received a message from Sergio Perez following his statement.

Sergio Perez endured a challenging stint with the Red Bull team. The Mexican driver who joined the Austrina outfit ahead of the 2021 campaign was shown the exit following the conclusion of what was adjudged to be an underwhelming 2024 season.

Despite Perez starting off the campaign with four podium finishes, he failed to reach the form which he showed at the start of the campaign. His final races with the team were marred by a flurry of DNFs and collisions.

The 35-year-old, however, is now set to make a return to Formula 1, this time with the series' newest team, Cadillac.