Audible shock and anguish echoed throughout the grandstands at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the motorsports track nestled in Mexico City.
Seconds earlier, the red lights had gone out and as 20 Formula One cars barreled towards Turn 1, the Red Bulls pulled on either side of pole sitter Charles Leclerc. Max Verstappen took the inside line while Sergio Pérez made a daring move around the outside, vying to jump from his fifth-place starting position to the front of the pack. But the three-wide moment became a disaster for Mexico’s pride and joy.
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Pérez and Leclerc collided, sending the RB19 into the air and knocking Pérez out of his home race. That’s the nature of F1 — the balance of risk and reward — and the Red Bull driver had known he might have to pay the price for a daring move. When asked whether he’d take the risk again, he paused, the question hanging in the air for a few seconds.
“Yes, I would,” he finally answered.
The misfortune mirrored much of his 2023 season. Pérez won two of the four opening races and looked poised to fight for the driver’s title against Verstappen, the reigning champion, but then his performance slipped while the Dutchman soared to record-breaking numbers. Questions arose about the status of Pérez’s seat, especially with fan favorite and Red Bull’s third driver Daniel Ricciardo mulling a return. Those still linger now, with Pérez’s contract being up at the end of 2024.
But even with an expectedly hot driver market looming and immense pressure building around him with a new season underway, Pérez has found peace and focused on an inspiration: his youngest son seeing him compete.
“Life is not about trophies and championships,” Pérez told The Athletic a few days prior to his Mexico City GP crash, “or anything like that.”
As confetti fell over the 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix podium, a young boy sat off to the side, crossing his arms and leaning them on the platform in front of him. He laid his head to the right and peered up at a trio of drivers: Verstappen, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and his father, Sergio Pérez.
The boy, Sergio Jr. — also known as Chequito — was basking in his dad’s third-place finish that day. The cheers and chants around him came with good reason: Pérez was the first Mexican driver to secure a podium finish at his home race.
Chequito would eventually hop into a go-kart, showing “a very high level of talent,” according to his father. But unlike today’s Mexican youth, Pérez himself didn’t have a countryman to admire in F1, making his dream of competing in the world’s premier motorsport series harder to envision.
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“I dreamed about it, but for a Mexican kid of 6 years old to think about Formula One, it’s like you are mental,” Pérez said. “We didn’t have any Mexican driver in Formula One. It’s not like it is now. Now, the Mexican kids jump into karting, and they all want to go into Formula One because they see that is possible.
“For me, it was very different.”
The Guadalajara native faced a more practical obstacle to his dream of becoming a pro racer: His family “didn’t have the money to pay for” his career, he said. Moreover, at one point in Pérez’s early teens, the Mexican racing federation pulled his license after he collided with an older, more influential driver. But his situation caught the attention of Escuderia Telmex, a racing company that helps find opportunities for Mexican and Latin American drivers, and it later sponsored him.
They sent him to the U.S., “and I knew that the U.S. route was to IndyCar, and I knew that’s not the way, and I cannot get to Europe too late,” said Pérez. So, at 14, he shifted course, leaving his native continent for Europe, his eyes set on F1.
Pérez made it to the pinnacle of motorsports in 2011 and spent the next decade competing for Sauber, McLaren, Force India (his longest stint) and Racing Point. He navigated terminated contracts and legal battles, found his form again in the midfield, secured his first win during the pandemic-shortened season and lost a well-earned seat before landing at Red Bull in 2021. It happened to be one of the most difficult positions on the grid: Verstappen’s teammate.
As he endured the rollercoaster known as F1, his world began changing off-track. Chequito was born in December 2017, and Pérez married his wife, Carola, the following year. They now have four children. Marriage and the growth of his family changed Pérez’s perspective on racing.
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“As I got married in my career, as I have kids, it’s something new and something that you start to know yourself a little bit more,” Pérez said. “In the end, I find (it) really important to be able to disconnect from (F1).”
Before he had kids, Pérez focused on race after race. “It’s a sport that demands 100 percent,” he said, and he’s as dedicated as ever. “But once you become a dad, you just realize that life is much more than Formula One, or at least it’s what happened to me. … It made me more human.”
“Max! How many — sorry — how many Red Bulls do you drink a day?”
Just a few feet away from where Pérez was speaking inside Red Bull’s hospitality building one afternoon at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Verstappen paused his conversation and perked up at his teammate’s inquiry. “Many,” he said. “I think I’m on my third one.”
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“Ah, three,” Pérez responded. “I felt like five or six a day.”
The casual, lighthearted moment in Mexico contrasted the previous several months. The 2023 campaign started full of promise for Pérez, whose two wins plus a sprint victory put him hot on Verstappen’s heels. Red Bull was dominant, and it looked like a thrilling driver’s championship battle could unfold. Then came round five, the Miami Grand Prix.
“Miami, for me, was a big turning point for Checo,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said in December. “Psychologically, that was a massive blow for him that weekend.”
The combination of a rare Verstappen mistake and a red flag-triggering crash by Leclerc left Pérez on pole and his teammate starting P9. That didn’t slow down the Dutchman, though. Verstappen caught up to his teammate and ultimately pulled away for the win, the first of his record-setting 10 consecutive victories.
Pérez’s performance unraveled from there, especially in qualifying. He missed getting in the top 10 eight times in the span of 17 races. In comparison, he had lined up outside of the top 10 on race day in 2022 only three times (some of which were due to grid penalties). “It’s confidence at the end of the day,” Horner said. “It’s being able to extract the most out of a single lap at the highest point of grip that you have on a new set of tires.”
Red Bull’s year became a tale of two drivers. Verstappen collected his third title, scoring enough points to have won the constructors’ championship single-handed. Pérez finished second with 285 points — 290 fewer than Verstappen and just 51 more than Mercedes’ Hamilton. He entered the offseason facing plenty of questions about his future at Red Bull.
“Look, being Max’s teammate is tough. It’s mentally hugely tough for whoever the incumbent is in the second car,” Horner said. “You’ve got to have a certain resolve and character to be prepared to go up against Max.”
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After a bad day, drivers are quick to say they’re already focusing on the next race. It’s different to actually act on it. “It is not like I’m bulletproof to it,” Pérez said. “I say it easily, but I know that if I have a bad result on Sunday, I will feel it for many weeks.”
Looking back over the season, Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley said Pérez impressed him with how he bounced back from the challenges, considering the mental strength it took. “Most drivers, it would take the whole winter to get the mindset back, but he did an extraordinary job.
“He’s somebody you do not underestimate.”
“Why do you love F1?”
The Athletic posed this simple question to Pérez while shadowing him during his home race weekend. He paused for a few seconds. “Because I make good money.” He barely finished the sentence before he started laughing. The real answer? His competitive nature.
Once you get to a certain level of a sport, it’s hard to walk away, Pérez said. And he appreciates what his presence in F1 means to others. “You are like a force for our countries. We are a big inspiration.”
There is plenty of talk about the status of his seat beyond this season. Pérez qualified fifth in the 2024 opener in Bahrain and navigated his way up the grid to finish second (and 22 seconds behind Verstappen).
Asked in Bahrain what the minimum was that Pérez needed to do to keep his seat, Horner said, “There’s no set criteria. He’s got to do enough to earn that seat, and days like today, it’s exactly what he’s got to deliver.” On Saturday, Pérez took second in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, again behind Verstappen.
Pérez is not ready to walk away from the pinnacle of motorsport just yet. “Every Sunday after the meeting (with my engineers), I go home, and I’m like ‘F—, I love this thing,’ because being able to communicate with this level of engineering, with this level of drivers, working alongside Max, with the best engineers in the world, I mean, it’s just something amazing.”
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Whether it was speaking with him inside Red Bull’s hospitality building or after the race-ending crash in Mexico, one could see the fire is still in his eyes. That Red Bull spot is one of the top, most sought-after seats in F1, but as far as Horner is concerned, “It’s Checo’s seat to lose. He’s the one that we’re backing, he’s our 2024 driver. If he does a great job (in 2024), there’s no reason we wouldn’t extend him into 2025.”
The biggest lesson F1 has taught Pérez is “not to get carried away. Knowing that you are not as good as when you win, and you are not as bad as when you lose.” It’s about keeping perspective, and part of that is his life off-track.
He is 34 and a father of four. There are a few other F1 drivers older than him, such as Nico Hülkenberg (36 and also a father) and Hamilton (39), but Pérez doesn’t see himself being like two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, who is 42. While he can “admire” the Spaniard’s accomplishments, Pérez said, “I’m different. Different from the point of view that I got a family, I got the four kids, and I want to see them growing. When they get to certain ages, I want to be very present and I want to enjoy with them and take them to fight for their dreams, whatever dream that is. I want to be part of their dreams.
“I know that I’m not going to be here forever, but one of my inspirations is that my youngest son gets to see me racing. So (retirement is) not going to be any time soon.”
(Lead image: John Bradford / The Athletic; photos: Lars Baron / Getty; Dan Istitene / F1; Mark Thompson via Getty Images)