After months of frenzied speculation, Sergio “Checo” Peréz, Mexico’s only Formula 1 (F1) driver and national sporting hero has announced his departure from his Red Bull Racing team in a post on the social media platform X.
The news of Checo’s departure means that the thirteen-year career of the Guadalajara-born driver is almost certain to be over, as every other F1 team has annouced their driver parings for the 2025 season, which begins in March next year.
Thank you for these four years @redbullracing
I wish you the best. pic.twitter.com/9vLUwvqBDl— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) December 18, 2024
If you’ve only just started following Formula 1, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Checo is a second-rate also-ran who filled the most coveted seat in the sport while doing nothing with it. You would, of course, be very wrong.
The Guadalajara-born driver is Mexico’s most decorated racer, even more so than the legendary Pedro Rodríguez, who dazzled fans across the world through the 1960s and 70s.
Six wins, 39 podium finishes and 1,638 career points is a very respectable tally for any competitor, and Checo rightfully takes his place in the pantheon of great Latin American drivers.
Motor racing is in the Pérez family blood: older brother Antonio raced in NASCAR, and by the age of six Checo was karting competitively. He quickly rose through the junior formulae, dominating British F3 in 2007. He was quickly inducted into the prestigious Ferrari Driver Academy and in 2011, aged just 21, Checo signed for the midfield Sauber team, making him the first Mexican to drive in F1 since Hector Rebaque, some 20 years earlier.
Into Formula 1
As soon as he stepped into the car in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Checo was turning heads. He pulled off a consummate drive on his debut, finishing in the points. A handful of points finishes marked a respectable first season, but it was 2012 when the young Mexican really made a name for himself.
After taking points in Australia, F1 headed to Malaysia for the second race of the 2012 season. In torrential rain and against all odds, Checo chased down Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, coming within meters of overtaking the two-time champion. Conspiracy abounded that Ferrari, who supplied engines to Sauber, had asked their customer team to allow them the win, but it almost didn’t matter: Checo Pérez had announced he was the future of F1 and had scored an extremely respectable second-place finish in a decidedly average car.
The rest of the season was successful too, with Checo taking two more podiums and cementing his reputation as a quick driver who excelled on faster circuits. Capping his second season with a hugely impressive 66 points, the stage was set for the tapatío to go on to much greater things.
Checo debutó como piloto de F1 con Sauber en el Gran Premio de Australia de 2011,
En su primera carrera demostró su capacidad para sobreponerse a la adversidad; aunque al final el resultado no fue favorable.
Pérez largó en la posición 13 y finalizó séptimo, con solo una parada… pic.twitter.com/4FAZ63y6k5
— Kat 🏁 (@F1Katt) March 22, 2024
Replacing a legend
It was this reputation that saw McLaren decide that Checo was the man to replace Lewis Hamilton, who had unexpectedly left the team that had quite literally raised him, gambling on the newcomer Mercedes. Here, Checo would partner 2009 World Champion Jenson Button, who would provide the first real yardstick for his abilities.
Unfortunately, McLaren was a team on the slide. Button could only drag the car to an unceremonious ninth-place finish in the Drivers Championship. Poor Checo fared even worse, finishing eleventh and scoring only 49 points. Sadly, this was all the justification that his new team needed to dispense of him; after just one season, Checo was on the hunt for a new drive.
Force India and Racing Point
Luckily, there was still demand for a driver of Checo’s talents. He soon found himself at Force India, who, like Sauber, were perennial midfielders. Between 2014 and 2017, he slowly and diligently worked his way back up the field. A tenth-place finish, then a ninth, then a seventh and another seventh. Five more podiums for the Indian outfit and a flurry of points finishes meant that as drivers came and went from F1, Checo remained. In fact, he was so popular that Carlos Slim paid to renovate Mexico City’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and return the Mexican Grand Prix to the calendar in 2015.
2018 was a much more difficult season, however. Team owner Vijay Mallya was arrested on fraud charges, and after a tumultuous few months, Force India was put up for sale. It looked like the team might be headed out of existence, and Checo reached into his own pockets to personally ensure that team members’ salaries were paid until a buyer could be found. Eventually, Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll stepped in to purchase the team’s assets, renaming it Racing Point.
Stroll had big plans for Racing Point, but first of all, he brought across his son, Lance Stroll, who had up until then been racing for the Williams F1 team. Faced with a teammate who was now undroppable, the pressure was on for Checo to show that he was capable of fulfilling the potential he had shown eight years earlier.
2020 and rise to stardom
2020 began quite well, with a run of three points finishes in the first three races. As the calendar reached Britain though, Checo tested positive for COVID-19, ruling him out of both the British Grand Prix and the subsequent 70 Anniversary Grand Prix.
Returning to the cockpit for the Spanish Grand Prix, Checo took a creditable fifth place before shocking the racing world by announcing he would be leaving Racing Point at the end of the 2020 season, as the team had signed four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel. This left the Mexican without a drive, and with the rest of the grid almost fully signed up for 2021, it was unclear where he would be able to go next.
Checo didn’t let this setback stop him though, securing five top-10 and three top-5 finishes in the following eight races. The hot streak was interrupted by an engine failure in Bahrain — in a race best remembered for Romain Grosjean’s miraculous escape from a fiery crash that ought to have killed him — but Checo lined up at the same track the following week, knowing that he had just 2 races left in F1 before he’d be left without a team.
Then at Sakhir, the stars aligned. With World Champion Lewis Hamilton — who had up until that point dominated the season — out with COVID-19, young George Russell stepped into the title-winning Mercedes. As Russell streaked away into the lead of the race by the first corner, the race looked like a predictable continuation of the Mercedes dominance that had characterized 2020. Disaster struck Russell however, when an unusual mistake saw Mercedes entirely botch a pitstop — and with it, any chance of Russell winning. The benefactor of this, however, was Checo, who was now out in the lead, free and clear. This time, everything went perfectly, and he romped over the line to take the victory.
After 191 F1 starts, Sergio Pérez was finally a winner in Formula 1. He was the first Mexican to take the chequered flag since Pedro Rodríguez in 1970. But he was still without a drive for 2021, and the media clamored for teams — any team — to sign him on.
Red Bull
F1 is a game of winners and losers, and as Checo’s star rose, the Red Bull team saw several of their drivers fall. The latest in a long line of rejects from F1’s most competitive team was Alex Albon, who’d suffered indignity after indignity since taking the second seat at Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen. During the off-season, Red Bull announced that Albon had been demoted to reserve status, and that Checo had been signed as the team’s number two alongside champion-in-waiting Verstappen.
To begin with, everything went swimmingly. Six races in, it became clear that what happened in Bahrain was no fluke. Checo won in Azerbaijan and took three more podiums later that season. He finished fourth in the World Championship and the future looked rosy.
2022 was even better. Third in the title race after the Spanish Grand Prix, Checo headed to Monaco on the back of his best season yet. Late in the qualifying session, the Mexican, who was in provisional pole position, spun his car out in front of the tunnel, blocking the track. Marshals reacted quickly and waved yellow warning flags, but not before Carlos Sainz Jr. broadsided the Red Bull, effectively ending the session and handing pole to Checo at the expense of teammate Verstappen.
Verstappen was livid, effectively accusing Checo of intentionally causing the accident to secure pole. Checo won the race the following day, but the damage was done. To add insult to injury, he was photographed dancing with a woman who was not his wife on a yacht while celebrating victory.
Decline
This was the high water mark for Checo. He would go on to win three more times and finish second in the 2023 championship, but increasingly appeared to be struggling as Verstappen dominated. With the famously uncompromising Verstappen now firmly rejecting Checo, and Red Bull closing ranks around the Dutchman, it was clear that the Mexican was on the outs.
By the end of 2024, with his morale firmly shot, Checo had become something of a punching bag for his team and fans alike, with most believing he was only kept on the Red Bull roster thanks to his huge sponsorship package and adoring Mexican crowds.
The axe was finally swung at the end of the 2024 season after weeks of wrangling. His replacement, which is yet to be announced, is an undeserving end to a Mexican talent who brought pride back to motorsports in his home country.
Chris Havler-Barrett is the Features Editor at Mexico News Daily.
