Sergio Pérez
He won his first Grand Prix driving for Racing Point at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, breaking the record for the number of starts before a race win at 190.[4] He earned his first Formula One pole position at the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, breaking the record for the most races before a first pole position at 215.[5] Up until 2012, Pérez was a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy. He made his Formula One debut driving for Sauber during the 2011 season. He took his first Formula One podium at the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix with Sauber. Due to his young age and performance, he was referred to as "The Mexican Wunderkind".[6] Pérez joined McLaren for the 2013 season, but the team did not score a single podium finish. Subsequently, the team decided to replace Pérez with Kevin Magnussen for the 2014 season.[7][8]
Force India signed Pérez for the 2014 season with a €15 million contract.[9] He remained with Force India when the team went into administration in 2018 and reformed as the Racing Point team for 2019. He raced for Racing Point until the end of 2020, when the team announced that Pérez would be replaced at the end of the season by Sebastian Vettel. Pérez then signed with Red Bull Racing for the 2021 season.[10] He has won 5 races with the team, most recently 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, finishing runner-up to teammate Max Verstappen in 2023 Drivers' Championship. He is currently under contract with Red Bull Racing until the end of the 2024 season.
Personal life
Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, Pérez is the youngest child of Antonio Pérez Garibay and Marilú Mendoza de Pérez; he also has an older sister Paola and an older brother Antonio,[12] a retired stock car racing driver who competed in the NASCAR Mexico Series. Pérez is married to Carola Martínez Galindo, and they have four children.[13][14] Pérez is Catholic.[15]
Both Pérez brothers are association football fans, stating that they thought about leaving car racing to play professionally.[16] The brothers are friends of Mexican footballer Javier Hernández.[17] In an interview in 2012 for the official Formula One website, Pérez revealed that if he had not been a driver he would have liked to have been a lawyer.
Karting
Pérez began his career in karting at the age of six in 1996.[19] In his first year of competition he achieved four victories in the junior category and claimed the runner-up spot in the category. In 1997, he participated in the karting Youth Class, where he was the youngest driver in the category and earned a win and five podium finishes and finished fourth in the championship.
The following year, he returned to compete in the junior category; he achieved eight wins and became the youngest driver to become champion of the category. He also participated in several races in Shifter 125cc and competed in Master Kadets, where he finished on the podium.
In 1999, he raced in the 80cc Shifter category, taking three wins and finishing third in the championship. He also became the youngest driver to win a competition in the category, after obtaining special permission from the Federation to participate in the 80cc Shifter.
In 2000, he raced in the Shifter 80cc Championship and also participated in three races in the Shifter 125cc category, which was part of the Telmex Challenge. The following year saw him become the youngest driver to compete in the 125cc Shifter Regional category. By now, his achievements were bringing him to the attention of scouts for Escuderia Telmex.
With six wins in 2002, Pérez finished as the national runner-up in the Shifter 125cc category, and participated in the global race Shifter 80cc, in Las Vegas, where he qualified fifth and finished in 11th place.
In 2003, he was leading both championships in the 125cc category but withdrew from the last seven races, which proved to be a disappointment in his title aspirations. However, he finished in third place in Telmex Challenge, in addition to being Cup runner-up in Mexico. In the same year, he was also invited to attend the Easy Kart 125 Shootout, where he competed against drivers from around the world and won the race, again as the youngest driver.
Skip Barber
Pérez competed in the US-based Skip Barber National Championship in 2004. Driving for a team sponsored by Mexican telecommunications company Telmex, he finished eleventh in the championship.
Formula BMW
Pérez moved to Europe in 2005 to compete in the German Formula BMW ADAC series. He was allowed to live in a restaurant owned by his team manager for four months.[20] He finished fourteenth in the championship, driving for 4speed Media, and improved to sixth position the following year.
A1 Grand Prix
In the 2006–07 A1 Grand Prix season, Pérez took part in a single round of the championship for A1 Team Mexico. He was the third-youngest driver to take part in the series.
Formula Three
Pérez switched to the British Formula 3 Championship for 2007. Pérez relocated his residence to Oxford.[20] He competed in the National Class – for older chassis – with the T-Sport team, winning the championship by a comfortable margin. In the process, he won two-thirds of the races and a similar proportion of pole positions, and finished all but two races on the podium.
For 2008, he and T-Sport graduated to the premier International Class of the championship, where he was one of the few drivers to be equipped with a Mugen Honda engine. After leading the championship early in the season, he eventually finished fourth in the drivers' standings.
GP2 Series
Pérez drove for the Campos Grand Prix team in the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series, partnering Russian driver Vitaly Petrov. He was the first Mexican driver to compete at this level of motorsport since Giovanni Aloi took part in International Formula 3000 in 1990. He won his first GP2 Asia Series race at Sakhir, winning from lights-to-flag in the sprint race having started from pole position. He added a second win at Losail, during the sprint race of the night meeting in Qatar.
He moved to Arden International for the main 2009 GP2 Series, driving alongside fellow Formula Three graduate Edoardo Mortara. Pérez finished twelfth in the standings, with a best result of second coming at Valencia. In the off-season, he contested two rounds of the 2009–10 GP2 Asia Series for Barwa Addax, ahead of a 2010 main series campaign with the team.[21] He won five races, and finished second in the standings behind Pastor Maldonado
