Sergio Pérez

Sergio Pérez

Sergio Pérez Mendoza (; born 26 January 1990) is a Mexican racing driver, currently driving in Formula One for Racing Point. He took his first Formula One podium at the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix with Sauber. Due to his young age and performance, he has been referred to as ‘The Mexican Wunderkind’ He was a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy until 2012.

About Sergio Pérez in brief

Summary Sergio PérezSergio Pérez Mendoza (; born 26 January 1990) is a Mexican racing driver, currently driving in Formula One for Racing Point. He took his first Formula One podium at the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix with Sauber. Due to his young age and performance, he has been referred to as ‘The Mexican Wunderkind’ He was a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy until 2012. He joined McLaren for the 2013 season, but the car failed to deliver the team a single podium finish. In December 2013, it was announced that Force India had signed him in a €15 million deal. He remained with Force India after they went into administration in the latter half of 2018, and then their reformation as Racing Point F1 In 2019. In August 2019, Racing Point announced that they had signed a three-year extension with Pekrez, which will last until the end of 2022. He won his first F1 Grand Prix at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, breaking the record for the number of starts before a race win at 190. He also has an older brother Antonio, who competed until 2015 in the NASCAR Mexico Series, a stock car racing championship held in Mexico. He and his partner Carola Martínez welcomed their first child, Sergio Jr. on 1 June 2018. On 14 September 2019, their second child, Carlota, was born. The brothers are friends of Mexican international Javier Hernández. Both are football fans, stating that they thought about leaving car racing to play professionally.

In an interview in 2012 for the official Formula One website, he revealed that if he had not been a driver he would have liked to be a lawyer. He is a Roman Catholic and his sister Paola was the foundation’s president. He has two older sisters, Paola and Marilú. In 2000, he raced in the Shifter 80 cc Championship, and also participated in three races in Shifter 125 cc category which was part of the Telmex Challenge. In 2003, he was the youngest driver to win a competition in the category, after obtaining special permission from the Federation to participate in the 80 cc Shifter. The following year, he returned to compete in the junior category, where he had eight wins and finished fourth in the championship. In 2002, he finished as runner-up in the national 125cc Shifter Championship. In the same year he was also invited to attend the Easy Kart-up Shootout in Las Vegas. However, he withdrew from the last seven races, which proved to be his disappointment in his title aspirations. He finished in third place in the Tel mex Challenge, in addition to winning the Shootout Cup in Mexico and winning the 125 cc Shoot-up Cup- Mexico in 2003. In 2004, he won the Mexican Shifter Cup and participated in the global Shifter Shifter Championships. In 2005, he took part in the World Karting Championship and finished in 11th place.