At the conclusion of the 2025 season — following the dramatic title decider at the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix — former Red Bull driver Sergio Pérez weighed in with a sharp, one-word comment that caught many F1 followers by surprise. The comment came minutes after Verstappen had clinched victory in the race, yet narrowly fallen short of the world championship crown.
Context: Verstappen’s narrow miss and Pérez’s return
In 2025, Verstappen reached the Abu Dhabi finale trailing in points. His only path to the championship required not just winning the race, but hoping others — particularly Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri — to finish off the podium. While Verstappen did win, Norris managed a third-place finish (with Piastri second), enough to secure the championship by a margin of just two points.
Pérez, who last raced at Red Bull in 2024, was not on the grid that day. The 2025 season marked his first time watching the title fight from the outside. That moment evidently didn’t curb his appetite for drama — once the title battle was resolved, he reacted in his own idiosyncratic way.
The one-word social-media reaction
Shortly after the race ended, on X (formerly Twitter), a meme surfaced showing the fictional villain Thanos — but with Pérez’s face superimposed. The meme’s caption read: “Perhaps I treated you too harshly.” The implication: a playful jab at Verstappen, recalling Pérez’s role in key moments of Verstappen’s career.
Pérez simply quote-tweeted the meme with the word:
“Perhaps” 😂
That’s it — no further explanation, no public statement. Just a single word and a laughing emoji.
Why that reaction resonated — and why it was cheeky
Many longtime fans of F1 remember Pérez’s critical role in helping Verstappen secure the 2021 world title. In the final race that year — also in Abu Dhabi — Pérez acted as a “buffer” against rival drivers (notably Lewis Hamilton), slowing them down and thus helping Verstappen close the title. That defensive driving — on a track widely seen as pivotal — earned Pérez the playful nickname “Minister of Defence” among some fans.
With that history in mind, his “Perhaps” reply in 2025 carried deeper resonance. The meme implied that maybe Verstappen lost this time because he didn’t have the same support — the “buffer” Pérez once provided. Fans understood this as a cheeky reminder: “If I were still in the car, things might have gone differently.”
For many, that single-word response felt like a sly, tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of how fine the margins are in F1 — how a single teammate’s presence can shape championship outcomes.
Pérez’s attitude: no regrets, just banter
It’s worth noting that Pérez didn’t frame the comment as bitterness or sour grapes. He didn’t issue a lengthy critique of Red Bull, Verstappen, or the 2025 title fight. Instead, it was light-hearted, playful — a quick jab to stir emotions, not to ignite controversy. Several reports described it as a “cheeky” or “tongue-in-cheek” reaction.
That tone aligns with what many expect from Pérez: a driver who isn’t shy to push back with humor or irony. For example, earlier in his career, Pérez had defended against media-fostered rivalry narratives with Verstappen, calling them overblown and stressing that drivers eventually lose whatever personal rivalry the media tries to create.
So in a sense, the “Perhaps” was consistent with how Pérez tends to approach friction: with a wink, not a fight.
Wider reaction: did fans miss Pérez in 2025?
Unsurprisingly, the meme and Pérez’s reply sparked renewed chatter among fans and pundits alike. Some argued that Red Bull’s decision to drop him at the end of 2024 — replacing him with a younger driver — backfired: without a second car capable of interfering with McLaren’s 1-2, Verstappen was left to fight the title by himself. The absence of a “buffer” reportedly cost him dearly in the final lap — something Pérez’s one-word reply subtly dredged up.
Others pointed out that, with Pérez not even in F1 for 2025, his comment was cheeky rather than bitter — a former insider acknowledging the irony of how quickly things changed. Some social-media users even revived the “Minister of Defence” nickname for Pérez, praising his timing and humour.
What this says about F1’s culture
This moment — brief but loaded — underscores something broader about F1: even outside the cockpit, former drivers can influence narratives. The sport doesn’t only turn on what happens on-track, but also on history, memory, and grudges turned into jokes. Pérez’s one-word reaction — simple, playful, yet full of subtext — shows how quickly legacy and on-track performance can resurface after the checkered flag.
It also highlights how the modern F1 audience engages: in memes, in social media jabs, in subtle trolling as much as official statements. A single word and an emoji can echo louder than long press conferences.
Final thoughts
Sergio Pérez’s “Perhaps” wasn’t a manifesto. It wasn’t bitterness. It was just one word — loaded, cheeky, and evocative. But in the context of 2025, with Verstappen a hair’s breadth from reclaiming the title and with Red Bull’s team strategy under scrutiny, that one word spoke volumes.
