Sergio Perez, a wasted talent despite a successful career?

Sergio Perez has been supported from a young age by Telmex, a communications company owned by businessman Carlos Slim. Without budget issues and with a good driving skill, Perez follows a classic path by entering Formula BMW ADAC, the German championship equivalent to Formula 4.

He trained there before joining the prestigious British Formula 3 Championship in 2007. This championship is a breeding ground for future champions, having revealed in the past names such as Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Carlos Pace, Nelson Piquet, Johnny Herbert, Rubens Barrichello, Mika Häkkinen, and Ayrton Senna.

From his first season, with a total of 14 victories, he wins the title in the National class category and proves his speed despite being labeled a pay driver, a tag that will follow him throughout his career even though it will fade with time and results.

After a less successful second season in British F3, he entered the GP2 Asia Series championship. With two victories to his credit, Perez finished in 7th place in the championship and subsequently in 2010 gained access to the F1 feeder series: the GP2 Series.

Having already produced many confirmed talents in F1 such as Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen, Timo Glock, or Nico Hülkenberg (non-exhaustive list), GP2 is the ultimate championship for accessing the premier category.

During his only season, Sergio Perez will reveal himself to everyone with no less than 5 victories and 60 points scored, as well as the honorary title of vice-champion behind Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado.

Sergio Perez made his Formula 1 debut in 2011 with the Sauber team as the teammate of Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi. It was a first season of learning that saw him score 14 points and finish 16th in the world championship, however with half as many points as his Japanese teammate who finished the season in 12th place.

2012: The Revelation

He re-signs for another season with Sauber. It will turn out that the C31 is particularly well-designed and very conservative with its tires.

Second Grand Prix of the season in Malaysia. The conditions are apocalyptic, the rain intensifies at the start, causing accidents notably between Michael Schumacher and Romain Grosjean, forcing race control to neutralize the race with a red flag for 1 hour.

As a good tire manager and very comfortable in drying conditions, Sergio takes the lead of a Formula 1 Grand Prix for the first time. He stops at the pit to get new tires and comes out behind Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari with fresher tires than the Spaniard.

He comes back like a bomb on the latter but makes a mistake attempting an overtake with 3 laps to go, relegating him to 5 seconds behind the double world champion, depriving him of a first F1 victory that he undoubtedly deserved. Nonetheless, it’s his first podium and Checo celebrates it as it should be alongside Alonso and Hamilton, both world champions.

He will repeat in Canada with a third place as well as in Italy with another second place. He will also score his first fastest lap in a race on the selective streets of Monaco.

His performances open the doors to the top teams. And while he is part of the Ferrari Drivers Academy and the Reds offered him a solid contract for 2014 despite another year with Sauber, Perez prefers to respond to the call of McLaren, which has just lost Lewis Hamilton to Mercedes. This later proves to be a decision with significant consequences.

McLaren: Perez’s Misguided Idea

While the British team seemed to have the most competitive car on the grid in 2012, despite not always having reliable performance, Martin Whitmarsh decided to start from scratch even though the regulations were stable and would only change the following season.

And what was bound to happen happened: McLaren is experiencing its worst season since 1980 with no wins and no podiums! While he thought he was aiming for victory, Checo realizes that he is going to endure an ordeal, and that was indeed the case.

Indeed, the native of Guadalajara came under the law of his World Champion teammate Jenson Button by scoring half as many points as the latter in the championship and was replaced by the team in favor of their home driver Kevin Magnussen.

Despite a somewhat tarnished reputation, Perez finds refuge at Force India, very interested in the Mexican driver’s talents… as much as in his financial backing.

Force India / Racing Point, an adventure that continues… despite itself

The year 2014 will allow him to regain momentum. With the Indian team, he finds Nico Hülkenberg as a teammate, a profile similar to his own, enabling healthy competition that pushes Force India to new heights.

Indeed, Checo returns to the podium as early as the third Grand Prix in Bahrain, somewhat overshadowed by the superb battle between the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

It will be his only podium of the year. He will also set the lap record in Austria, where his teammate Hülkenberg narrowly missed pole position against Felipe Massa. He finishes the year in 10th place, just behind the German, but once again with a large points gap (96 to 59).

In 2015, he will have a similar year with a podium at the end of the season in Russia, but thanks to better consistency, he finishes in 9th place in the championship with 20 points more than Hülkenberg, who still does not have a single podium to his name.

Force India proves to be the rising team in F1 and reaches its peak in 2016 with 4th place in the constructors’ standings, a position retained in 2017 despite the rise of Renault.

This allows Perez to secure two new prestigious podiums in 2016 in the Principality of Monaco and in Baku for the new Grand Prix. Additionally, he achieves the fastest lap each time.

For the first time in his career, Perez surpasses the 100-point mark with 101 points and ranks 7th with the honorary title of “best of the rest” behind the untouchable Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull. He once again outperforms Nico Hülkenberg, who is heading to Renault.

The strained relationship with Esteban Ocon

The young Frenchman Esteban Ocon replaces the German driver after participating in a few Grand Prix at the end of the 2016 season with Marussia. Ocon is one of the representatives of the new golden generation in Formula 1, behind the headline act Max Verstappen.

The first season is going quite well both in terms of sports and relationships: Checo scores 100 points again (without a podium though) and finishes as the “best of the rest” while Ocon, in his first full season in F1, finishes 8th with a total of 87 points.

But the second season is going to prove much more complicated: in terms of results already, the car is not as well-born as the previous two, and the start of the season is sluggish for the Roses.

While the team scored only a single point with Ocon at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Perez took advantage of the always eventful Azerbaijan Grand Prix to climb onto the podium behind Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen.

This is his first podium since the same Baku Grand Prix in 2016.

The financial troubles of the team result in losing the capital acquired starting from the Belgian Grand Prix. The team, renamed Racing Point, thus begins its year from this same race, but the drivers retain the points scored so far.

Spa marks the beginning of the Ocon/Perez frictions with two touches at the exit of turn 1 at the pit exit, driving the Frenchman crazy with rage who almost took off because of that. Both drivers will nevertheless finish 5th and 6th.

Singapore will mark the second turbulent episode with Perez once again taking out his teammate, but this time definitively for Ocon, which will earn the Mexican a penalty and a ban from their team to fight on the track.

Sergio Perez will finish 8th in the exercise with only 62 points and leaves the “Best of the Rest” spot to… Nico Hülkenberg, his former teammate who is now making Renault’s day, moving ahead of Racing Point in the standings.

What future now?

This season, he welcomes the son of his new boss, Lance Stroll, to Racing Point. Stroll’s only notable achievements are a few strong performances in the rain and unexpectedly landing a podium finish during the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku while driving for Williams.

Considered by many as a pay driver (which he still is), Stroll experiences a bit of what Perez felt at the start of his career before achieving good results and draws a lot of inspiration from his garage neighbor. However, he is still subject to the rule of his experienced teammate.

The question now arises about the future Perez may have in Formula 1. While he has a contract for the next three seasons, still with Racing Point, he hopes to catch the eye of a top team once again.

Many believe that his chance has passed, and they might be right. Often mentioned among the potential number two drivers for Ferrari if Sebastian Vettel were to leave the Scuderia, Perez no longer seems to be in the spotlight and risks ending his career in a mid-grid team as he is currently placed.

His former teammate, Hülkenberg, has just been dropped from Renault F1 in favor of… his other former teammate Ocon!

Perhaps a sign for these two excellent drivers that their time has passed and that despite a long career and commendable achievements, they have certainly not fully exploited their entire potential.

Formula 1 or the art of being in the right place at the right time!