MEXICO CITY — Along with his son watching on, arms draped on the right-hand aspect of the rostrum on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Sergio Pérez soaked within the adulation of his house followers.
Regardless that Max Verstappen had received the race for Purple Bull, third-placed Pérez drew the group’s focus after scoring his first Mexican Grand Prix podium. Whereas it was his fifth podium of the 2021 season, it was the primary time a Mexican driver had achieved such a outcome at house, making it a big outcome for each him and his nation.
Three years on, issues have modified dramatically.
Pérez stays the star in Mexico. This stays his weekend, his face adorning billboards everywhere in the metropolis as manufacturers and sponsors look to money in on his stardom. Purple Bull workforce principal Christian Horner joked that Pérez was “endorsing each product from Uber Eats to rest room roll this weekend.”
However proper now, by means of a rotten run of kind that has induced him to hunch to eighth on this planet championship, one other podium end would carry much more weight for Pérez.
“I do know I’ve had a horrible season, a really tough one,” Pérez admitted on Thursday. “It began very well, nevertheless it’s been actually, actually tough. If I get a powerful outcome, it might positively change my season massively by way of (my) private emotions.”
Pérez arrives in Mexico and not using a podium end for the reason that Chinese language Grand Prix in April. A season that began with a lot promise, with Purple Bull trying a step forward of its rivals, shortly unraveled as he struggled with the automotive. A scarcity of stability that robbed the drivers of confidence this 12 months solely bit Max Verstappen towards the tip of the European season. It damage Pérez far earlier.
The ensuing downturn in kind put Pérez’s future within the highlight. Purple Bull noticed its early-year benefit ebb away as McLaren, aided by two high-scoring drivers in Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, reeled it in and finally overhauled it on the high of the constructors’ championship. Whereas Verstappen has maintained a good buffer on the head of the drivers’ standings, Purple Bull is now vulnerable to additionally slipping behind Ferrari — solely eight factors behind — to P3. That might be its lowest constructors’ end since 2019.
Even forward of Mexico, Pérez felt the necessity to answer rumors that he may announce his plan to retire from F1 altogether at his house race. Throughout the three-week break after Singapore, he posted a video clip from “The Wolf of Wall Avenue” the place Leonardo di Caprio’s character, Jordan Belfort, confidently tells his workforce phrases to the extent of, “I’m not leaving.”
Sorry 😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/rPIHpYDVGH
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) September 29, 2024
“I simply felt prefer it’s been yearly, for the final two years or so, that somebody creates this rumor after which everybody picks it up,” Pérez defined in Austin final week when requested in regards to the publish. “All my followers, clearly I’m very aware that there are lots of people coming to help me, to the Mexican Grand Prix, they usually most likely may be anticipating one thing that’s not true.
“I felt the necessity to simply say, look, I feel it’s simply not appropriate to unfold rumors like this with out figuring out the information.”
The frequency of these rumors is due to the scrutiny positioned on Pérez’s underperformance and future regardless of his being underneath contract for the subsequent two seasons. His renewal was supposed to offer him stability at a time when his kind was slipping, appearing as an additional arm across the shoulder—proof that he had the workforce’s help.
It did not have the specified impact. Pérez nonetheless has not completed inside the highest 5 for the reason that deal was introduced shortly earlier than the Canadian Grand Prix. He was in competition for the rostrum in Azerbaijan final month, just for a late conflict with Carlos Sainz to finish his race.
Pérez throughout observe on Friday in Mexico Metropolis. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Photos)
On Friday, Horner agreed with Pérez’s evaluation that his season had been “horrible,” saying the Mexican had “summed it up completely.”
“It’s been a foul 12 months for Checo,” Horner mentioned. “He began strongly, and clearly, he struggled for kind since Imola onwards. It’s been sporadic. We noticed flashes of efficiency. (In) Azerbaijan, arguably he may have received that race virtually a month in the past.
“We all know what he’s able to. We’re hoping we can provide him the setup and confidence within the automotive to extract the type of performances we all know he’s able to.”
Verstappen’s deepening struggles over the summer time races indicated that Pérez was not solely in charge for his drop in kind. The upgrades that arrived in Austin helped ease a few of Verstappen’s issues, however Pérez — who certified ninth and completed solely seventh — didn’t have the total package deal. “We simply didn’t get an excellent weekend,” he mirrored in Mexico. “It wasn’t an excellent weekend the place I constructed numerous confidence.”
Confidence is one thing that Purple Bull has lengthy sought to try to re-instill in Pérez because it appears to be like towards 2025. “Checo’s our driver,” Horner mentioned. “He’s contracted for 2025. He’s aggressive. He’s hungry. He’s not pleased with the place he presently is. So, as a workforce, we’re doing our best to help him.”
Horner was requested how Liam Lawson’s performances at RB may affect the plan throughout the 2 Purple Bull groups, given the hyperlinks for him to doubtlessly exchange Pérez in case of a change at Purple Bull. Horner reiterated that Pérez “has a contract for subsequent 12 months, so he’s presently our driver for 2025.”
“There’s a seat accessible at RB, they usually’re all Purple Bull racing drivers which might be on mortgage,” Horner mentioned. “We take pleasure in time to sit down down with Laurent (Mekies) and Peter (Bayer) and have a look at all of the choices.”
The fan adoration for Pérez in Mexico Metropolis is boundless. (Mark Thompson/Getty Photos)
If there was one race of the remaining 5 the place the vitality of the occasion and the group may present an additional enhance of vitality to gasoline Pérez, it’s Mexico. The depth of the race weekend is like nothing else he experiences in F1. He described it as being “like three races without delay.” The noise from the grandstands on his first outlap at the beginning of FP1 was larger than most drivers will hear 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 shade and noise within the Foro Sol stadium part.
The calls for of racing at house do make for a taxing week. But it takes nothing away from how particular the grand prix is for him. “I simply wish to get pleasure from it,” he mentioned in Austin. “That is my ninth grand prix in Mexico, so I simply wish to guarantee that I get pleasure from each single little bit of it, as a result of it’s a vital one.”
The one noise Pérez needs to listen to this weekend is from the grandstands. The fixed hypothesis and discussions about his future? He’s not bothered. “You simply need to ensure you preserve your head down, you deal with the stuff that you may management,” Pérez mentioned. “The remainder is one thing that you just can not get bothered with.”
Ending his podium drought on house soil could be an ideal manner for Pérez to dismiss a few of the query marks over his future at Purple Bull. It will additionally give him the prospect for an additional priceless second, just like the one together with his son three years in the past.
“That second will stick with me without end, having my son up there with me on the rostrum, watching me,” Pérez mentioned. “It’s one thing that I hope he remembers without end. If not, I’ll have the image a minimum of to indicate him when he’s older!
“These moments, I feel, are those that basically matter to me. And I hope I can repeat that this weekend.”
Remembering when Sergio Perez’s son bought to see his father on the rostrum at his house Grand Prix 💚🇲🇽
(by way of rsanchezp/IG) pic.twitter.com/tsFzL1JMHu
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) July 12, 2022
High picture: Mark Thompson/Getty Photos
