Sergio Perez’s first feedback since leaving the Formulation 1 grid after shedding his Crimson Bull seat indicated a sabbatical from driving.
The Mexican’s struggles behind the wheel of the RB20 resulted in Liam Lawson changing him alongside Max Verstappen for the brand new marketing campaign, with Perez’s 14-year keep within the championship delivered to an finish.
Talking at an occasion in Mexico, he mentioned he would wait six months earlier than making a call on what comes subsequent, citing an opportunity to spend time together with his household. However what ought to come subsequent? Our writers have a look…
Learn Additionally:
Entries from Alex Kalinauckas, Stuart Codling, Kevin Turner, Oleg Karpov and Jake Boxall-Legge.
Turning a blind eye to Formulation E can be a mistake
Formulation E drew a sold-out 40,000 crowd in Mexico on the weekend, offering a really actual alternative for Perez
Photograph by: Joe Portlock / Motorsport Photographs
The timing of Perez’s first public assertion since his Crimson Bull axing is attention-grabbing as a result of his look on the Feria de Leon pageant befell on the identical weekend as one other high-profile motorsport sequence was making its annual go to to Mexico Metropolis.
Formulation E’s early years featured loads of ex-Formulation 1 drivers signing up – lured by the championship’s aggressive (if misguided) try and place itself as an F1 various, plus vital paydays laborious to seek out elsewhere within the motorsport sphere.
Each points aren’t fairly what they as soon as have been – with FE now sustaining its area of interest inside a distinct segment with much less shouting and fewer Felipe Massa-style mega offers coming for drivers leaving F1. Though, the likes of Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo have been all the time unlikely FE drivers – given their earlier profession achievements and earnings.
However FE has one thing that may very well be very attention-grabbing to Perez: a well-liked annual race on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. The grandstands within the upgraded Foro Sol have been packed once more throughout Saturday’s race received by Oliver Rowland, together with these lining the pit straight – though FE’s shorter observe structure in comparison with the same old circuit means numbers are smaller general.
However, from my expertise attending this E-Prix twice, the Mexican followers are simply as passionate a couple of very completely different type of motorsport and can be much more so with their nation’s most profitable F1 driver showing too.
Perez signing with an FE workforce would maintain the cash rolling in – with prime earners within the electrical championship mentioned to be banking near £2m a 12 months. It is not F1-level cash, however it’s nonetheless good for knowledgeable racing driver and, as has constantly been seen all through FE’s historical past, twin programmes with one other championship are nonetheless being organized even across the ongoing irritating calendar clashes with the World Endurance Championship. Perez’s supervisor Julian Jakobi – most well-known for representing Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost concurrently – additionally manages a number of current FE drivers and so would know the perfect potential opening.
However in showing in Guanajuato as he did final weekend when FE was in his nation’s capital suggests Perez himself might not be concerned with such a transfer anyway (or is not less than not being so open about it with no FE driver slots accessible at this stage anyway and the potential of an F1 return, nonetheless unlikely which may be).
However dismissing this thrilling sequence and the cleaner emissions know-how it champions – particularly essential for a particularly congested metropolis equivalent to Mexico Metropolis – can be a mistake given how a lot love Perez would discover with such a gig. AK
The important thing to happiness is away from the observe…
Antonio Perez has insisted the household has not left F1
Photograph by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Photographs
In 1797 the service provider and someday peace activist James Tilly Matthews was arrested and later dedicated to a lunatic asylum after interrupting a debate within the Home of Commons. Matthews believed {that a} legal gang, probably comprising international spies, was torturing him from afar with invisible rays from a machine he known as an “air loom”.
I cite this instance due to Sergio Perez’s father Antonio’s latest feedback, a person with aspirations in the direction of excessive workplace and a historical past of constructing peculiar utterances in public. His newest was refusing to rule out a racing gig for Checo in Formulation E, which is able to “quickly be the primary motorsport”.
Uh-huh.
“The Perez household has not left F1,” he advised a no-doubt gobsmacked scribe from the racing web site SoyMotor. He may prefer to assume that, however it has left them. This will likely be made plain subsequent time he tries to swipe again into the paddock and the digital gates emit their discordant fanfare of rejection.
“What’s coming is historic, I guarantee you,” Antonio continued. Lastly some sense. Checo’s self-imposed six-month sabbatical will likely be coming to an finish proper about Goodwood Pageant of Velocity time. He may drive the BRM V16 up the hill; it is even noisier than his dad.
Flush with money after being purchased out of his contract with Crimson Bull, Perez Jr does not have to work and seems to be in no urgent hurry to get again to it, as evidenced by his acknowledged intention of taking six months off.
By that point there will likely be vanishingly few top-flight racing choices on the desk until Cadillac inexplicably finds slim pickings on the sponsor entrance, Liam Lawson underperforms to the extent that Crimson Bull goes into better-the-devil-you-know mode, or Alpine fires Jack Doohan [i] and [i] Franco Colapinto. Stranger issues have occurred – simply not invisible torture rays from an air loom.
“I am having fun with my youngsters, my household, and my buddies very a lot,” mentioned Checo throughout an look at a pageant final weekend. In six months he may simply discover these – other than his dad that’s – somewhat extra of a pull than the hurly-burly of F1. Until he bets his pay-off on crypto and wishes to start out incomes once more to place the children by means of faculty.
Maybe the important thing to happiness away from the observe is to lock his dad up someplace quiet – just like the mad girl within the attic in a Victorian novel? SC
Swap to sportscars so as to add to Mexican hero standing
May Perez resume battle with Kevin Magnussen in sportscars?
Photograph by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Photographs
It was fairly apparent Perez wasn’t having fun with his motorsport in 2024 and everyone knows he’s higher than he appeared final season. Reasonably than attempt to extend his F1 profession – or quit altogether – the 34-year-old ought to attempt to rediscover his motorsport mojo elsewhere.
The World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship are having fun with an awesome interval, with a number of sturdy drivers and producer involvement. There are already loads of ex-F1 drivers in sportscar competitors, together with 2009 world champion Jenson Button (in WEC with Jota Cadillac) and 2024 Haas driver Kevin Magnussen (IMSA with the RLL BMW squad).
The competitors degree can be excessive however the stress can be rather a lot much less. Qualifying was his largest downside alongside Max Verstappen at Crimson Bull and meaning little in contests lasting something as much as 24 hours.
And if he actually is nearly as good at taking care of the tyres in races as was beforehand thought, then that will be asset, too.
Relying on the place he landed – and certainly a prime workforce would desire a six-time grand prix winner with 14 seasons of F1 expertise – there would even be the possibility to win the Le Mans 24 Hours. He is already received the Monaco GP and, although Perez does not fancy IndyCar, he hasn’t dominated out showing in main races; a Le Mans win would give him two-thirds of motorsport’s triple crown.
It might additionally add to his standing at residence. Mexico’s solely Le Mans winner is Pedro Rodriguez – maybe the nation’s biggest racing driver – and it is greater than half a century since his success with Ford.
Learn Additionally:
It might be unhappy if Perez’s final racing season was 2024. Ending his profession elsewhere can be extra becoming for his skills. And he may really get pleasure from it! KT
Main Cadillac into battle
May Perez be the motive force to guide Cadillac’s F1 cost?
Photograph by: Cadillac Communications
An unpopular opinion: Sergio Perez is an excellent driver…
You’ll be able to pause now in the event you really feel the urge to shout, punch the air and even throw some objects round.
However let’s simply keep in mind what obtained him the Crimson Bull seat. In fact, it was a consequence of the workforce’s personal earlier – and somewhat questionable – choices: neither Pierre Gasly nor Alex Albon have been prepared (or some would argue ‘adequate’) to be in a prime workforce and companion Max Verstappen – and Perez’s hiring appeared like a logical step. Greater than that, it was additionally honest. After so a few years of paddling by means of midfield, scoring occasional podiums and being dependable and constant, the Crimson Bull gig felt like a welcome and well-deserved reward. And it actually was. For every little thing he’d executed with Power India (and Racing Level afterward, after all), he deserved an opportunity in a prime automotive.
It is not a foul factor that he obtained that likelihood – not many ‘deserved’ it greater than the Mexican. However now we most likely know that he isn’t fairly the highest driver.
However is he as dangerous as he’s being made out to be on social media? Nicely, most likely not. Maybe it’s certainly draining and demoralising for any driver to share a storage with Verstappen – and 4 years of fixed stress to match the Dutchman’s excellence might be simply sufficient to trigger burnout.
There are various within the paddock who consider that Perez can be way more aggressive if Crimson Bull had developed its automotive for him and never his team-mate as effectively. With the automotive he likes, he actually would not have appeared as hopeless as he did within the final three-quarters of the 2024 season.
If after six months he decides to proceed in F1, there’s most likely nonetheless a spot for him on the grid. Not in a prime automotive, after all – but when somebody wants a man with expertise, why not give Perez a shot?
For Cadillac, he’d be one of many apparent candidates to placed on their shortlist. In fact, it might trigger some outrage on social media. There will likely be individuals shouting, punching the air and throwing issues. However it might really make a number of sense. The final couple of years have positively proven that Perez is not a world championship calibre driver, however earlier than that he had executed sufficient to not solely justify his presence on the grid, however to be thought-about probably the most dependable and constant racers in F1.
And it could be that he nonetheless is when he isn’t sharing the storage with Verstappen. OK
Stop racing for a life in politics
May his experiences in F1 set him up for a profession in politics?
Photograph by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Photographs
Sergio Perez’s performances in 2024 have been so abject that he ought to not have had a leg to face on when it got here to retaining his seat for 2025. In “regular” F1 phrases, the concept that Perez might need the tiniest slither of an opportunity to remain at Crimson Bull ought to have been non-existent.
However there was a crutch, one which Perez steadily leaned on in each dialogue about his future: a contract. There’s an previous adage in F1, one which decrees contracts are scarcely well worth the paper they’re written on – however for the six-time race winner, the notion that he had one was very helpful certainly. This was a contract that Crimson Bull had thrust underneath Perez’s nostril early into the season to stave off one other nasty bout of ‘the yips’, which he’d suffered from in 2023’s mid-season interval, as Christian Horner hubristically surmised that job safety would provide a handy remedy to shaky type. Seems the 2 aren’t mutually unique, and Crimson Bull needed to negotiate a possible hefty payout to get Perez off its arms.
The opposite facet that made it much less of a no brainer to jettison Perez had lain in his industrial worth; to the Mexican fanbase, he’s nothing in need of revered. The Mexican Grand Prix returned to the calendar due to Perez’s affect; corporations working in his residence nation have clamoured for him to be the face. His contribution to Crimson Bull’s annual price range was mentioned to be north of $20 million a 12 months.
He is well-liked, and he is steadfast in his beliefs. He knew that, together with his contract up for debate, what to say within the circumstances to impress the response he wanted and strengthen his place. Naturally, a profession in politics awaits.
Perez is already of political inventory; his father Antonio, not too long ago recognized for his limelight-bothering antics amid the discussions over his son’s future (when’s that checklist of imply ol’ journalists popping out, by the way in which?), was a member of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies as half underneath former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado. For somebody of Perez’s reputation, maybe changing into concerned within the Mexican political framework would not be an excessive amount of of a stretch.
It would not be uncharted territory for an ex-F1 driver both; Carlos Reutemann was a senator in Argentina, though notably resisted any efforts to persuade him to run for president. In maybe lesser-known driver-turned-politician tales, ex-Ferrari driver Patrick Tambay served as a deputy mayor of Le Cannet – a commune north of Cannes, whereas Sakon Yamamoto sat on Japan’s Home of Representatives as a member of the conservative Liberal Democratic Occasion.
Does Perez have the curiosity? In reality, we have by no means really requested him, though the weapons-grade politicking of F1 may serve him effectively for the marginally much less fractious environs of parliament. If his skill to remain calm underneath, let’s face it, overwhelming stress can stay unfettered, he may be a helpful asset to a political occasion someplace. JBL
Time will inform what Perez’s subsequent transfer is to be
Photograph by: Crimson Bull Content material Pool
On this article
Be the primary to know and subscribe for real-time information e-mail updates on these subjects
Subscribe to information alerts
