Sergio Pérez

Sergio Pérez Mendoza (born 26 January 1990, also known as "Checo" Pérez, is a Mexican racing driver, currently driving for Force India.

Pérez was a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy until 2012. He also took his first Formula One podium at the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix with Sauber, a drive which won him plaudits and fuelled speculation of a move to Ferrari in the near future. However, Pérez later told reporters that he expected to stay with Sauber until at least the end of the 2012 season. Due to his young age and performance, he has been referred to as "The Mexican Wunderkind".

Pérez joined McLaren for the season. For, the team decided to replace Pérez with Danish driver Kevin Magnussen. In December 2013, it was announced that Force India have signed Pérez in a 15 million Euro deal.

Personal life
Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Sergio Pérez is the youngest child of Antonio Pérez Garibay and Marilú Pérez (née Mendoza); he also has an older sister Paola and an older brother Antonio who competes in the NASCAR Toyota Series, a stock car racing championship held in Mexico.

Both Pérez brothers are big football fans, stating that they thought about leaving car racing to play professionally. The Pérez brothers are friends of Mexican international Javier Hernández. In an interview in 2012 for the official Formula One website, Pérez revealed that if he had not been a driver would have liked to be a lawyer.

In November 2012, Pérez unveiled the Checo Pérez Foundation to support orphans and children with cancer; his sister Paola would also be involved with the project, as its President.

Karting
Pérez began his career at the age of 6 years in karting in 1996. In his first year of competition he achieved four victories in the junior category at the end of the year and claimed the runner-up spot in the category. In 1997, Pérez participated in the karting Youth Class, where he was the youngest driver in the category and earned a win, five podiums and finished fourth in the championship.

The following year, he returned to compete in the junior category, where he had eight wins; and at the end of the campaign, he became the youngest driver to become champion of the category. He also participated in several races in Shifter 125 cc, and competed in Master Kadets, where he finished on the podium.

In 1999, he raced in the 80 cc Shifter category, where he took three wins and finished third in the championship. Pérez also became the youngest driver to win a competition in the category, after obtaining special permission from the Federation to participate in the 80 cc Shifter.

In 2000, he raced in the Shifter 80 cc Championship, and also participated in three races in the Shifter 125 cc category which was part of the Telmex Challenge. However, Pérez was not satisfied with the results and the following season, was up for another championship, this time on the 125cc Shifter Regional, and once again was the youngest driver to compete in the category. With all these achievements, the Mexican driver caught the attention of scouts for Scuderia Telmex.

With six wins in 2002, Pérez finished as the national runner-up in the Shifter 125 cc category, and participated in the global race Shifter 80 cc, in Las Vegas, where qualified fifth and finished in 11th place.

In 2003, he was leading both championships in the 125 cc category, but withdrew from the last seven races, which proved to be a disappointment in his title aspirations. However, he finished in third place in Telmex Challenge, in addition to winning the Cup runner-up in Mexico. In the same year, he was also invited to attend the Easy Kart 125 Shootout, where he competed against drivers from around the world and managed to qualify in first place to eventually take the checkered flag, while he was the youngest in the category.

Skip Barber
Pérez competed in the United States-based Skip Barber National Championship in 2004. Driving for a team sponsored by Mexican telecommunications company Telmex, he finished eleventh in the championship.

Formula BMW
Pérez moved to Europe for 2005 to compete in the German Formula BMW ADAC series. Pérez was allowed to reside in a restaurant owned by his team manager for four months. He finished fourteenth in the championship, driving for Team Rosberg, and improved to sixth position the following year.

A1 Grand Prix
In the 2006–07 A1 Grand Prix season, Pérez took part in a single round of the championship for A1 Team Mexico. He was the third-youngest driver to take part in the series.

Formula Three
Pérez switched to the British Formula Three Championship for 2007. Pérez relocated his personal residence to Oxford. He competed in the National Class – for older chassis – with the T-Sport team, winning the championship by a comfortable margin. In the process, he won two-thirds of the races and a similar proportion of pole positions, and finished all but two races on the podium.

For 2008, he and T-Sport graduated to the premier International Class of the championship, where he was one of the few drivers to be equipped with a Mugen Honda engine. After leading the championship early in the season, he eventually finished fourth in the drivers' standings.

GP2 Series
Pérez drove for the Campos Grand Prix team in the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season, partnering Russian driver Vitaly Petrov. He is the first Mexican driver to compete at this level of motorsport since Giovanni Aloi took part in International Formula 3000 in 1990. He won his first GP2 Asia Series race at Sakhir, winning from lights-to-flag in the sprint race having started from pole position. He added a second win at Losail, during the sprint race of the night meeting in Qatar.

He moved to Arden International for the main 2009 GP2 Series season, driving alongside fellow Formula Three graduate Edoardo Mortara. Pérez finished twelfth in the standings, with a best result of second coming at Valencia. In the off-season, he contested two rounds of the 2009–10 GP2 Asia Series for Barwa Addax, ahead of a 2010 main series campaign with the team. He won five races, and finished second in the standings behind Pastor Maldonado.

2011 season


On 4 October 2010, Sauber announced that Pérez would join the team in, replacing Nick Heidfeld. Sauber subsequently announced a partnership with Pérez's sponsor Telmex. Pérez became the fifth Mexican to compete in Formula One, and the first since Héctor Rebaque competed between 1977 and 1981. Pérez also became a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy scheme in October 2010.

He passed the chequered flag in seventh place in his first race, the, impressing observers by stopping to change tyres only once, becoming the only driver in the field to make fewer than two stops. However, both Sauber cars were subsequently disqualified for infringing technical regulations. Pérez failed to repeat the result in Malaysia where body parts flew off Sébastien Buemi's Toro Rosso car and into the electrical system of Pérez's Sauber, forcing his retirement. The saw him start in 12th position and he struggled during the race as well as making contact with several drivers en route to 17th. He followed that up with fourteenth in Turkey, before a ninth place finish in Spain – ahead of team-mate Kamui Kobayashi in tenth – to take his first Formula One points.

During the third part of qualifying for the, Pérez lost control of his car upon exiting the circuit's tunnel section, swung to the right and crashed into the barrier, before sliding across the chicane and hitting the TecPro barrier with a heavy side impact. Pérez was seen holding his hands around his head in an attempt to protect it just before the final impact. The session was suspended, and marshals and medical personnel extricated Pérez from his car. A Sauber team spokesman confirmed that Pérez was conscious and able to talk after the accident, and had been taken to the circuit's medical centre. He suffered a sprained thigh and concussion, and did not take part in the race the following day, on medical grounds. After taking part in the first practice session of the, Pérez did not feel well enough and decided not to take any further part, and was replaced by Pedro de la Rosa.

Pérez returned for the and finished eleventh after attempting to run the race on a one-stop strategy. Pérez took a career best seventh at the and eleventh in Germany. After a fifteenth place in Hungary, Pérez retired in Belgium with suspension failure. This was followed by a gearbox failure while running seventh in Italy, before he scored a point in Singapore after losing ninth place to Felipe Massa. In Japan he took eighth place, before a sixteenth place finish in Korea, tenth in India, and an eleventh place finish in Abu Dhabi. Pérez finished sixteenth in the Drivers' Championship with fourteen points.

On 28 July, it was announced that Pérez would remain with Sauber into the season, alongside team-mate Kobayashi. On 13 September, Pérez tested for Ferrari as part of the Ferrari Driver Academy in a Ferrari F60, Ferrari's car from the season. Pérez conducted the test with fellow academy member Jules Bianchi.

2012 season
Pérez started the season with eighth place at the, losing several places on the final lap due to excessively-worn tyres. In the second round at Malaysia, he went on to battle with Fernando Alonso for the win. In the dying laps of the race he was able to close the gap to 0.5 seconds, but was not able to make the pass as he went wide at turn 14 and fell back, finishing 2.2 seconds behind Alonso in second. Many observers praised the performance of Pérez during the race despite his late-race error,  taking Sauber's best result as an independent team. In China, Pérez qualified a career-best eighth, but finished the race in eleventh place after problems with pit strategy and also his car's clutch.

He finished outside the points in the next three races – despite recording the fastest lap in Monaco – before Pérez achieved his second career podium at the, finishing the race in third place, having started fifteenth.

In the, Pérez qualified in fifteenth place, citing a handling imbalance and the car feeling "unpredictable" as reasons for the gap to Kobayashi in seventh. He improved to ninth place in the race, but raised poor qualifying form as an issue for the team. On lap 12 of the, Pérez collided with Pastor Maldonado, forcing him to retire with broken suspension. He later criticised the Venezuelan, claiming "Everybody has concerns about him" before adding, "He is a driver who doesn't know that we are risking our lives and has no respect at all". Maldonado received a double penalty in the form of a reprimand and a €10,000 fine after the race. Pérez later added: "Just look at the last races. He ruined Hamilton's race (in Valencia), he ruined my race in Monaco by doing stupid things. I don't understand why the stewards don't take a serious decision with him. With Pastor they're not doing anything that will teach him a lesson."

For the, Pérez started in 17th position but was able to make his way through the field, and ultimately finished the race in sixth place. At the, Pérez made it into Q3 and qualified fifth fastest. A penalty for Maldonado subsequently promoted Pérez to a career-best fourth on the grid. In the race, Pérez was forced to retire in the first turn of the first lap after Romain Grosjean caused a spectacular accident. Grosjean crashed his car into Lewis Hamilton creating a domino effect which involved five cars. Also involved in the accident were, the championship leader Fernando Alonso and Pérez's team-mate Kamui Kobayashi.

Pérez took his third podium at the. On Saturday, he failed to qualify for Q3, and was twelfth on the grid. On Sunday, he put in a storming drive to climb through the field to second place, passing on track, among others, Kimi Räikkönen, Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa and Alonso. Unlike most of the drivers in the field, Pérez started the race on hard tyres and changed to the medium tyres on lap 29, allowing him to lead the Grand Prix for five laps. As a result, Pérez and his car's outstanding tyre management got him well into the points, and ultimately, to a podium finish. Ultimately, Pérez finished the season in tenth place in the Drivers' Championship with 66 points, 6 more than team-mate Kobayashi.

2013 season
On 28 September 2012, Lewis Hamilton's decision to leave McLaren for Mercedes in 2013 was announced, and Pérez was subsequently confirmed as Hamilton's replacement. He also replaced Hamilton in McLaren's cartoon Tooned.

In the season-opening race in Australia, Pérez qualified 15th and finished in 11th position, later describing the weekend as "difficult" for himself and the team as a whole. Pérez started the from ninth on the grid, and finished the race in the same position, scoring his first points for McLaren. Pérez also achieved the fastest lap of the race, having pitted for fresh tyres.

In the Bahrain GP, he started 12th on the grid and finishing 6th ahead of Alonso (8th) and his teammate Button (10th), with whom he had a fierce duel in which they touched on a couple of occasions, increasing the competition between drivers in McLaren on the following races.

After the Bahrain Grand Prix, Jenson Button was quoted with the following on Pérez's driving style:

"I've raced with many team-mates over the years and with quite an aggressive team-mate in Lewis, but I'm not used to driving down the straight and then my team-mate coming along and wiggling his wheels at me and banging wheels with me at 300km/h. I've had some tough fights in F1 but not quite as dirty as that.

That's something you do in karting and normally you grow out of it but that's obviously not the case with Checo [Pérez]. Soon something serious will happen so he has to calm down. He's extremely quick and he did a great job today but some of it is unnecessary and an issue when you are doing those speeds."

- Jenson Button speaking to ESPN about Perez after the 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix

At the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix Pérez performed several aggressive overtaking moves, before retiring after colliding with Kimi Räikkönen. Following the incident Räikkönen said that Pérez should be "punched in the face". Pérez recorded a season-best fifth place finish in India, finishing four seconds shy of the podium, a result that left him "extremely satisfied".

Pérez confirmed on 13 November 2013 that he would be leaving McLaren at the end of the season to be replaced by Kevin Magnussen. On 12 December 2013 (exactly a month after it was announced he would leave McLaren), Force India confirmed Pérez would join Nico Hülkenberg in their driver line-up for 2014 in a 15 million Euro deal.

Force India (2014)
On 12 December 2013, Pérez had his drive for Force India in 2014 confirmed. In the, he finished 11th but was moved up to 10th to get his first point for Force India due to Daniel Ricciardo being disqualified for breaching fuel limits. He failed to start the, after his car encountered gearbox issues prior to the start of the race. Nevertheless a week later in the, he was able to score Force India's first podium since , holding off Ricciardo's Red Bull for a third place finish. At the, Pérez started 16th and after gaining four places at the start, was able to overtake both McLarens and Kvyat's Toro Rosso to finish 9th.

Helmet
Perez's helmet design is based on a Mexican flag. It changes every season.

Career summary
† Includes points scored by other drivers. * Season in progress.

Complete A1 Grand Prix results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Asia Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula One results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) $†$ Driver failed to finish the race, but was classified as they had completed >90% of the race distance. * Season in progress.