MEXICO CITY — Together with his son looking at on, fingers draped at the right-hand facet of the rostrum on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Sergio Pérez soaked within the adulation of his house fanatics.
Even if Max Verstappen had received the race for Crimson Bull, third-placed Pérez drew the folk’s center of attention later scoring his first Mexican Magnificent Prix podium. Past it was once his 5th podium of the 2021 season, it was once the primary future a Mexican motive force had completed this type of outcome at house, making it an important outcome for each him and his nation.
3 years on, issues have modified dramatically.
Pérez residue the celebrity in Mexico. This residue his weekend, his face decorating billboards in every single place the town as manufacturers and sponsors glance to money in on his stardom. Crimson Bull staff foremost Christian Horner joked that Pérez was once “endorsing every product from Uber Eats to toilet roll this weekend.”
However presently, via a rotten run of mode that has led to him to hunch to 8th on this planet championship, every other podium end would raise much more weight for Pérez.
“I know I’ve had a terrible season, a very difficult one,” Pérez admitted on Thursday. “It started really well, but it’s been really, really difficult. If I get a strong result, it can definitely change my season massively in terms of (my) personal feelings.”
Pérez arrives in Mexico with out a podium end for the reason that Chinese language Magnificent Prix in April. A season that began with such a lot pledge, with Crimson Bull having a look a step forward of its competitors, temporarily unraveled as he struggled with the auto. A dearth of stability that robbed the drivers of self belief this 12 months best bit Max Verstappen towards the tip of the Eu season. It harm Pérez a long way previous.
The ensuing downturn in mode put Pérez’s past within the highlight. Crimson Bull noticed its early-year merit ebb away as McLaren, aided via two high-scoring drivers in Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, reeled it in and ultimately overhauled it on the govern of the constructors’ championship. Past Verstappen has maintained a significance buffer on the head of the drivers’ standings, Crimson Bull is now susceptible to additionally slipping at the back of Ferrari — best 8 issues at the back of — to P3. That may be its lowest constructors’ end since 2019.
Even forward of Mexico, Pérez felt the want to reply to rumors that he may announce his plan to abdicate from F1 altogether at his house race. All the way through the three-week split later Singapore, he posted a video clip from “The Wolf of Wall Street” the place Leonardo di Caprio’s personality, Jordan Belfort, optimistically tells his body of workers phrases to the level of, “I’m not leaving.”
Sorry pic.twitter.com/rPIHpYDVGH
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) September 29, 2024
“I just felt like it’s been every year, for the last two years or so, that someone creates this rumor and then everyone picks it up,” Pérez defined in Austin terminating date when requested in regards to the publish. “All my fans, obviously I’m very conscious that there are a lot of people coming to support me, to the Mexican Grand Prix, and they probably might be expecting something that is not true.
“I felt the need to just say, look, I think it’s just not correct to spread rumors like this without knowing the facts.”
The frequency of the ones rumors is as a result of the scrutiny put on Pérez’s underperformance and past regardless of his being below guarantee for the upcoming two seasons. His renewal was once supposed to present him balance at a future when his mode was once slipping, performing as an difference arm across the shoulder—evidence that he had the staff’s aid.
It did not have the required impact. Pérez nonetheless has now not completed throughout the govern 5 for the reason that do business in was once introduced in a while sooner than the Canadian Magnificent Prix. He was once in competition for the rostrum in Azerbaijan terminating past, just for a overdue crash with Carlos Sainz to finish his race.
Pérez throughout observe on Friday in Mexico Town. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Photographs)
On Friday, Horner indubitably with Pérez’s review that his season were “terrible,” announcing the Mexican had “summed it up perfectly.”
“It’s been a bad year for Checo,” Horner stated. “He started strongly, and obviously, he struggled for form since Imola onwards. It’s been sporadic. We saw flashes of performance. (In) Azerbaijan, arguably he could have won that race almost a month ago.
“We know what he’s capable of. We’re hoping we can give him the setup and confidence in the car to extract the kind of performances we know he’s capable of.”
Verstappen’s deepening struggles over the summer time races indicated that Pérez was once now not only accountable for his shed in mode. The upgrades that arrived in Austin helped relief a few of Verstappen’s issues, however Pérez — who certified 9th and completed best 7th — didn’t have the whole bundle. “We just didn’t get a good weekend,” he mirrored in Mexico. “It wasn’t a good weekend where I built a lot of confidence.”
Self assurance is one thing that Crimson Bull has lengthy desire to aim and re-instill in Pérez because it seems towards 2025. “Checo’s our driver,” Horner stated. “He’s contracted for 2025. He’s competitive. He’s hungry. He’s not happy with where he currently is. So, as a team, we’re doing our very best to support him.”
Horner was once requested how Liam Lawson’s performances at RB may have an effect on the plan around the two Crimson Bull groups, given the hyperlinks for him to probably substitute Pérez in case of a metamorphosis at Crimson Bull. Horner reiterated that Pérez “has a contract for next year, so he’s currently our driver for 2025.”
“There is a seat available at RB, and they’re all Red Bull racing drivers that are on loan,” Horner stated. “We have the benefit of time to sit down with Laurent (Mekies) and Peter (Bayer) and look at all the options.”
The fan appreciation for Pérez in Mexico Town is boundless. (Mark Thompson/Getty Photographs)
If there was once one race of the extra 5 the place the power of the development and the folk may grant an difference spice up of power to gasoline Pérez, it’s Mexico. The depth of the race weekend is like not anything else he reviews in F1. He described it as being “like three races at once.” The noise from the grandstands on his first outlap initially of FP1 was once more than maximum drivers will listen of their honor all season, such is the joy of the 100,000-plus Mexicans who’re packed into the circuit, the bulk bursting into colour and noise within the Foro Sol stadium division.
The calls for of racing at house do build for a taxing date. But it takes not anything clear of how particular the elegant prix is for him. “I just want to enjoy it,” he stated in Austin. “This is my ninth grand prix in Mexico, so I just want to make sure that I enjoy every single bit of it, because it’s a very important one.”
The one noise Pérez desires to listen to this weekend is from the grandstands. The consistent hypothesis and discussions about his past? He’s now not stricken. “You just have to make sure you keep your head down, you focus on the stuff that you can control,” Pérez stated. “The rest is something that you cannot get bothered with.”
Finishing his podium drought on house landscape could be an excellent method for Pérez to push aside one of the query marks over his past at Crimson Bull. It could additionally give him the anticipation for every other valuable hour, like the only along with his son 3 years in the past.
“That moment will stay with me forever, having my son up there with me on the podium, watching me,” Pérez stated. “It’s something that I hope he remembers forever. If not, I’ll have the picture at least to show him when he’s older!
“Those moments, I think, are the ones that really matter to me. And I hope I can repeat that this weekend.”
Remembering when Sergio Perez’s son were given to look his father at the podium at his house Magnificent Prix
(by way of rsanchezp/IG) pic.twitter.com/tsFzL1JMHu
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) July 12, 2022
Supremacy photograph: Mark Thompson/Getty Photographs
