Pérez

Sergio Pérez was six years old in 1996 when he first sat in a kart in Guadalajara, Mexico. That year, racing alongside Antonio Sánchez in the infant category, he scored four wins and finished runner-up. By 1998, he had become the youngest champion in the juvenile class, taking eight victories. He continued to set age records through the Shifter categories, winning the Shifter 125 cc regional title in 2000. The Escudería Telmex, a Mexican talent development program backed by Carlos Slim, began following his progress. In 2002, he was national vice-champion in Shifter 125 cc and finished 11th in the Shifter 80 cc world race in Las Vegas. The following year, while leading two Shifter 125 cc championships, he had his racing permit revoked for the final seven races following an on-track incident with Klaus Schinkel Jr. and subsequent political interference. Despite this, Pérez was invited to the Easy Kart 125 world shootout, where he qualified and won as the youngest driver in the field.

Pérez’s path to Formula 1 began in Guadalajara, but it was forged in the competitive karting circuits of Mexico. At age six, in 1996, he entered the infant category and finished runner-up with four wins. The following year, he became the youngest driver in the juvenile class, scoring one win and five podiums. By 1998, he was champion and, again, the youngest to achieve it. He progressed through the Shifter 80cc and 125cc ranks, winning the regional Shifter 125cc title in 2000 and catching the attention of Escudería Telmex, the Mexican talent development program backed by Carlos Slim. After a national vice-championship in Shifter 125cc in 2002, Pérez moved to single-seaters. He won the British Formula 3 National Class championship in 2007, then graduated to GP2 Series in 2009. A runner-up finish in the 2010 GP2 championship, driving for Barwa Addax Team, sealed his entry into Formula 1 with Sauber for the 2011 season.

Sergio Pérez’s Formula 1 career has spanned 15 seasons, 287 starts, and six race wins—a record that places him among the most successful Mexican drivers in the sport’s history. He debuted in 2011 with Sauber, where his ability to manage tire wear and extract performance from midfield machinery quickly earned him a reputation. A difficult 2013 season at McLaren was followed by a resurgence at Force India (later Racing Point), where he became the team’s anchor and scored its first podium in 2014. The high point arrived during his four seasons at Red Bull Racing (2021–2024). There, Pérez won five of his six Grands Prix, including a memorable victory at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He finished runner-up in the 2023 drivers’ championship, the best result of his career, and added a third-place finish in 2022. After a season away from the grid, Pérez returned in 2026 with the newly formed Cadillac F1 Team. Across his career he has also collected three pole positions, 12 fastest laps, and 39 podiums, driving for six different teams.

Sergio Pérez’s peak arrived in the 2022–2023 seasons, his second and third years with Red Bull Racing. In 2022, he finished third in the Drivers’ Championship, scoring 305 points with two wins—at Monaco and Singapore—and 11 podiums. The following year, 2023, was his statistical zenith: he placed runner-up to teammate Max Verstappen, earning 285 points, two victories (Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan), and nine podiums. Across those two seasons, Pérez started 44 races, claimed four of his six career wins, and stood on the podium 20 times. His 2023 campaign marked the first time a Mexican driver finished in the top two of the Formula One World Championship. While he never mounted a sustained title challenge against Verstappen, Pérez’s consistency and ability to extract performance from the Red Bull RB18 and RB19 cemented his place as the team’s second driver during its most dominant era.

Sergio Pérez is the third of three children born to Marilú Mendoza and Antonio Pérez Garibay, a former racer and politician. His older brother, Antonio, competed in NASCAR México and SuperCopa Telcel. At 15, Pérez gained the patronage of Carlos Slim Domit through Telmex, a sponsorship that has underpinned his entire career. He and his wife, Carola Martínez, have four children: Sergio (born December 2017), Carlota (December 2019), Emilio (May 2022), and a daughter born in September 2023. Through his Fundación Checo Pérez, he supports minors with cancer, raising funds via auctions of motorsport memorabilia. A close friend of footballer Javier “Chicharito” Hernández, Pérez has said that if he were not a driver, he would have liked to be a lawyer or a footballer.

Sergio Pérez’s six Grand Prix victories and 39 podiums represent the most successful Formula 1 career by a Mexican driver, but his legacy is defined as much by timing and team politics as by statistics. His runner-up finish in the 2023 drivers’ championship alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull was the highest championship placement for a Mexican in the sport’s history, yet it came during a season of total Red Bull dominance. The three poles and twelve fastest laps he collected across 15 seasons are modest numbers for a driver who spent four years at the top team, and his departure from Red Bull after 2024 reflected the brutal performance pressure of the organization. Pérez’s influence extends beyond the cockpit: the Escudería Telmex program that backed him from age 15 became a template for corporate driver development in Latin America. He remains the only Mexican driver to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix, a record that has stood since his first victory at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix.