Sergio Perez is about to reach a massive milestone this weekend on home soil at the Mexico City Grand Prix. By taking the start, he will log his 300th Formula 1 appearance, climbing past Sebastian Vettel to take seventh on the all-time entry list. Ahead of the weekend, Perez sat down to trace his journey through the highs and lows of his stints with Sauber, McLaren, Force India, Racing Point, Red Bull, and Cadillac.
His career began fifteen years ago with Sauber after coming up through junior single-seater ranks in British F3 and GP2. He immediately grabbed the paddock's attention on debut at the Australian Grand Prix by finishing a brilliant seventh on an alternate one-stop strategy, though that result vanished when both Sauber cars were disqualified for rear wing breaches. By his second year in 2012, he was a genuine midfield threat. At the Malaysian Grand Prix, he thrived in mixed weather conditions and went wheel-to-wheel with Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso for the victory before finishing second after a late track excursion.
Those performances made him arguably the most wanted junior driver on the grid, leading directly to a high-profile move to McLaren for 2013 after Lewis Hamilton made his shock switch to Mercedes. Unfortunately, the dream partnership turned into a nightmare. McLaren produced a desperately uncompetitive car that failed to score a single podium, pole position, or win. Struggling with a poor machine and his own relative inexperience, Perez managed a best finish of fifth and was dropped by the team at the end of the year, plunging his career into serious jeopardy.
Vijay Mallya threw him a lifeline ahead of the 2014 season with Force India, a small squad that took a major step forward with Mercedes power units. Perez rewarded them immediately by finishing third at the Bahrain Grand Prix behind Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg while fending off Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo. He racked up multiple podiums and became a vital points-scoring machine for the Silverstone-based operation. His emotional pinnacle with the outfit arrived when the Mexican Grand Prix returned to the calendar at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in 2015, putting him front and center in front of fiercely passionate home grandstands.
That fruitful era ended under intense pressure in 2018 when the team ran into severe financial trouble. Perez took legal action against the squad in an effort to protect roughly 400 jobs before a consortium led by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll bought the assets, which eventually transitioned into the Aston Martin works team. Despite the boardroom chaos, Perez was quietly building toward his crowning moment. During the delayed 2020 campaign, after missing two races due to Covid-19 and grabbing a second-place finish at a wet Turkish Grand Prix, he arrived in Bahrain for the Sakhir double-header without a contract for the following year.
After retiring from the first Bahrain race due to engine trouble, the second round on the shorter Outer Circuit started with chaos when Charles Leclerc collided with him on the opening lap, sending Max Verstappen into the wall as well. Dropped to the back of the field, Perez launched a stunning recovery drive. Benefiting from clever strategy, Virtual Safety Car periods, and sheer pace, he inherited the lead after a puncture and pit stop dramas sidelined the front-running Mercedes pair of Valtteri Bottas and George Russell. He drove home to secure his maiden victory ahead of Renault driver Esteban Ocon and teammate Lance Stroll, becoming the first Mexican F1 winner since Pedro Rodríguez in 1970.
That history-making win arrived just as Racing Point was replacing him with four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel for 2021. With his options narrowed down essentially to Red Bull or nothing, the Milton Keynes squad offered him a massive second chance in a top-tier team. Partnering Max Verstappen, Perez immediately proved his utility by winning on the streets of Azerbaijan and claiming four additional podiums in 2021. His defensive masterclass at the Abu Dhabi season finale, where he held off Lewis Hamilton to help Verstappen secure his maiden world title, cemented his value to the squad.
