Sergio Pérez
Sergio Michel "Checo" Pérez Mendoza is a Mexican racing driver who is contracted to compete in Formula One for Cadillac. Pérez was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Red Bull, and won Grands Prix across 14 seasons.
Born and raised in Guadalajara, Pérez began competitive kart racing aged six. Graduating to junior formulae in 2004, Pérez won his first championship in the national class of the 2007 British Formula 3 International Series. He progressed to the GP2 Series in 2009, finishing runner-up to Pastor Maldonado the following season with Addax. A member of the Ferrari Driver Academy from 2010 to 2012, Pérez signed for Sauber in to partner Kamui Kobayashi, making his Formula One debut at the, where both were disqualified for an illegal rear wing. Pérez found greater success for the team in, achieving his maiden podium finish in Malaysia, and repeating this feat in Canada and Italy. For the season, Pérez moved to McLaren, replacing Lewis Hamilton to partner Jenson Button. After a podium-less season for McLaren, Pérez signed with Force India in. He scored five podiums with the team before their re-branding to Racing Point mid-way through the season.
Pérez placed fourth in the championship with Racing Point in, taking his maiden win at the, having been in last-place at the end of the first lap. Replaced by Sebastian Vettel at the re-branded Aston Martin for, Pérez signed for Red Bull to partner Max Verstappen; he took his first victory for the team at the. Pérez took further wins in at the Monaco and Singapore Grands Prix, amongst his maiden pole position in Saudi Arabia, finishing the season third overall. Pérez finished runner-up to Verstappen in the 2023 World Drivers' Championship, after additional victories in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan. Following a winless campaign, Pérez and Red Bull mutually agreed to terminate his contract, having contributed to two World Constructors' Championships. He is contracted to return with Cadillac in.
Pérez has achieved race wins, pole positions, fastest laps and podiums in Formula One. He holds the Formula One records for the most starts before a race win and the most races before a pole position.
Early and personal life
Sergio Michel Pérez Mendoza was born on 26 January 1990 in Guadalajara, Jalisco. 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, 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. Pérez is Catholic.Both Pérez brothers are association football fans, stating that they thought about leaving car racing to play professionally. The brothers are friends of Mexican footballer Javier Hernández. 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.
Junior racing career
Karting
Pérez began his career in karting at the age of six in 1996. 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, Pérez 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, Pérez 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, Pérez 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. 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. 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, Pérez 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.Pérez 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. He won five races, and finished second in the standings behind Pastor Maldonado.
Formula One career
Sauber (2011–2012)
2011: Debut season
On 4 October 2010, Sauber announced that Pérez would join the team in, replacing Nick Heidfeld. Sauber subsequently announced a partnership with Pérez's sponsor Telmex. He became the fifth Mexican to compete in Formula One, and the first since Héctor Rebaque competed between 1977 and 1981. He also became a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy scheme in October 2010.Pérez finished seventh in his first race, the, impressing observers by stopping to change tyres only once, becoming the only driver in the field to make fewer than two stops. However, both Sauber cars were subsequently disqualified for infringing technical regulations. He failed to repeat the result in Malaysia where body parts flew off Sébastien Buemi's Toro Rosso car and into the electrical system of Pérez's Sauber, forcing his retirement. The saw him start in 12th position and he struggled during the race as well as making contact with several drivers en route to 17th. He followed that up with fourteenth in Turkey, before a ninth-place finish in Spain – ahead of teammate Kamui Kobayashi in tenth – to take his first Formula One points.
During the third part of qualifying for the, Pérez lost control of his car upon exiting the circuit's tunnel section, swung to the right and crashed into the barrier, before sliding across the chicane and hitting the TecPro barrier with a heavy side impact. He was seen holding his hands around his head in an attempt to protect it just before the final impact. The session was suspended, and marshals and medical personnel extricated Pérez from his car. A Sauber team spokesman said that he was conscious and able to talk after the accident, and had been taken to the circuit's medical centre. He suffered a sprained thigh and concussion, and did not take part in the race the following day, on medical grounds. After taking part in the first practice session of the, Pérez did not feel well enough and decided not to take any further part, and was replaced by Pedro de la Rosa.
Pérez returned for the and finished eleventh after attempting to run the race on a one-stop strategy. He took a career-best seventh at the and eleventh in Germany. After a fifteenth place in Hungary, he retired in Belgium with suspension failure. This was followed by a gearbox failure while running seventh in Italy, before he scored a point in Singapore after losing ninth place to Felipe Massa. In Japan he took eighth place, before a sixteenth-place finish in Korea, tenth in India, and an eleventh-place finish in Abu Dhabi. He finished sixteenth in the Drivers' Championship with fourteen points.
On 28 July, it was announced that Pérez would remain with Sauber into the season, alongside teammate Kobayashi. On 13 September, Pérez tested for Ferrari as part of the Ferrari Driver Academy in a Ferrari F60, Ferrari's car from the season. Pérez conducted the test with fellow academy member Jules Bianchi.