MEXICO CITY — Together with his son watching on, arms draped on the right-hand facet of the rostrum on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Sergio Pérez soaked within the adulation of his house followers.
Although Max Verstappen had received the race for Crimson Bull, third-placed Pérez drew the gang’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 end result at house, making it a major end result 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. Crimson Bull group principal Christian Horner joked that Pérez was “endorsing each product from Uber Eats to bathroom roll this weekend.”
However proper now, by way of a rotten run of kind that has triggered him to hunch to eighth on the earth championship, one other podium end would carry much more weight for Pérez.
“I do know I’ve had a horrible season, a really troublesome one,” Pérez admitted on Thursday. “It began rather well, however it’s been actually, actually troublesome. If I get a robust end result, it may well positively change my season massively by way of (my) private emotions.”
Pérez arrives in Mexico with out a podium end for the reason that Chinese language Grand Prix in April. A season that began with a lot promise, with Crimson Bull wanting a step forward of its rivals, shortly unraveled as he struggled with the automotive. An absence of stability that robbed the drivers of confidence this yr solely bit Max Verstappen towards the top of the European season. It damage Pérez far earlier.
The ensuing downturn in kind put Pérez’s future within the highlight. Crimson 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, Crimson Bull is now vulnerable to additionally slipping behind Ferrari — solely eight factors behind — to P3. That will be its lowest constructors’ end since 2019.
Even forward of Mexico, Pérez felt the necessity to answer rumors that he would possibly announce his plan to retire from F1 altogether at his house race. Through the three-week break after Singapore, he posted a video clip from “The Wolf of Wall Road” 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 acutely aware that there are lots of people coming to assist me, to the Mexican Grand Prix, they usually most likely is likely to be anticipating one thing that’s not true.
“I felt the necessity to simply say, look, I feel it’s simply not right to unfold rumors like this with out understanding the information.”
The frequency of these rumors is due to the scrutiny positioned on Pérez’s underperformance and future regardless of his being beneath contract for the following two seasons. His renewal was supposed to offer him stability at a time when his kind was slipping, performing as an additional arm across the shoulder—proof that he had the group’s assist.
It didn’t 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 rivalry 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 Pictures)
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 yr for Checo,” Horner stated. “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 might 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 form of performances we all know he’s able to.”
Verstappen’s deepening struggles over the summer season races indicated that Pérez was not solely responsible 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 complete bundle. “We simply didn’t get a superb weekend,” he mirrored in Mexico. “It wasn’t a superb weekend the place I constructed quite a lot of confidence.”
Confidence is one thing that Crimson Bull has lengthy sought to attempt to re-instill in Pérez because it seems towards 2025. “Checo’s our driver,” Horner stated. “He’s contracted for 2025. He’s aggressive. He’s hungry. He’s not pleased with the place he at present is. So, as a group, we’re doing our best to assist him.”
Horner was requested how Liam Lawson’s performances at RB would possibly affect the plan throughout the 2 Crimson Bull groups, given the hyperlinks for him to probably exchange Pérez in case of a change at Crimson Bull. Horner reiterated that Pérez “has a contract for subsequent yr, so he’s at present our driver for 2025.”
“There’s a seat accessible at RB, they usually’re all Crimson Bull racing drivers which can be on mortgage,” Horner stated. “We benefit from time to take a seat 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 Pictures)
If there was one race of the remaining 5 the place the power of the occasion and the gang might present an additional enhance of power to gas 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 first 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 colour 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 take pleasure in it,” he stated in Austin. “That is my ninth grand prix in Mexico, so I simply wish to guarantee that I take pleasure in each single little bit of it, as a result of it’s an important 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 should ensure you hold your head down, you deal with the stuff which you could management,” Pérez stated. “The remaining is one thing that you simply can not get bothered with.”
Ending his podium drought on house soil can be an ideal approach for Pérez to dismiss a number of the query marks over his future at Crimson Bull. It could 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 ceaselessly, having my son up there with me on the rostrum, watching me,” Pérez stated. “It’s one thing that I hope he remembers ceaselessly. If not, I’ll have the image not less than 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 acquired 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
Prime photograph: Mark Thompson/Getty Pictures