Max Verstappen believes some of the criticism aimed at his team-mate Sergio Perez this season has been “very harsh” as the RB20 has been difficult to drive.

Perez may have contested his final Grand Prix in Red Bull colours, and he may even know that already with Red Bull having discussed their driver situation in a meeting on Monday.

Max Verstappen is not part of the F1 2025 conversation

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Formula 1 fans though will have to wait a little longer to hear who will be Verstappen’s F1 2025 team-mate, but the announcement should come sometime this week according to motorsport advisor Helmut Marko.

Although Red Bull gave Perez a new contract back in May this year, his future with the team was plunged into uncertainty when – not for the first time – his form slumped.

But unlike in 2023 and his qualifying woes, this year Perez was unable to pull himself out of it and he finished the season a distant P8, 285 points behind championship-winner Verstappen in the Drivers’ standings.

His struggles to score points cost Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship where the team finished third, losing almost $20 million in prize money.

Red Bull’s higher-ups and shareholders met on Monday to discuss the team’s 2025 driver line-up.

Verstappen was not part of the conversation.

“I don’t know. I mean, this is up to the team,” he told the media including PlanetF1.com of his 2025 team-mate before giving Perez his vote of confidence.

“I always worked really well with Checo. He’s a great guy, honestly. It’s very rare that you have a team-mate like him who has always been very good and just a nice guy to us.”

Max Verstappen labels Perez criticism ‘very harsh’

Although Perez fell well short of Verstappen’s numbers in 2024 with 152 points to 437, no wins compared to nine, and only four podiums to the Dutchman’s 14, Verstappen says his team-mate is “not an idiot”.

Asked if he sympathised with Perez, he replied: “I do. I work with him every weekend, week in, week out. I find people have been very harsh on him.

“Of course, some weekends maybe could have been better, but sometimes people have been very harsh on him because he’s not an idiot.

“He’s always been regarded as a great driver and it’s been tough, but it’s been tough for everyone in the team because sometimes it was just very difficult to drive.”

As for Perez, despite being insistent in the recent weeks that he will be a Red Bull driver next season, the Mexican racer wavered in that after ending his campaign with a retirement in Abu Dhabi.

“Well at the moment I don’t know,” Perez said of his future. “I just know I’ve got a contract to race this year, unless something changes in the coming days that’s going to be the situation next year.”

He added: “I’ve got a contract which I signed earlier in the year to race for the team for the next two years. So we’ll see what happens and how the conversation goes in the coming days.”