Formula One is really big in Mexico.
After 30 years without a Mexican driver,
something like that...
We’ve finally got a Mexican driver so,
it was a big thing for our country.
Certainly being...
a Latin coming outside of Europe,
it’s harder because we are the ones
that have to come here.
Change our culture,
live on our own.
So our challenges are not only on the track,
they are also off the track.
Basically I had a special permit,
that I could race drivers with
much older ages.
We were always going to the races,
and then coming back straight.
We were driving for hours on the motorway.
We were like literally, sleeping in the cars.
Wake up,
drive the car, like we would drive the entire night.
Get there, wake up,
not even shower just grab a
glass of water, throw it into your face
and get into the go-kart and qualify.
Something like that,
Finish the race, go back for another 10 hours,
driving the whole night, get us to school Monday morning.
The crazy thing about it is we were super happy.
It didn’t really matter if we won or not because
I think we were just enjoying the time, you know.
We were not thinking much about what’s going to come next or
whether we’re going to make it to F1 or not
we were just enjoying the time,
and it was pretty simple and we were just pretty happy to
to do that sort of thing
I was in Mexico, I was leading this Championship
and the prize at the end of the season was to get a test in Formula’s.
and I had a crash with another guy.
But the other driver
was very powerful with the Mexican federation.
He had some good influences, so I got banned.
You know, they took my license away
for the rest of the season so
I was leading that Championship so I wasn’t,
I was not going to be able to do the test you know because I was not going to win it.
I really wanted to do that race but I couldn’t because I didn’t have my license with me.
That was the last time I raced in Mexico until I was in Formula 1.
To race in Europe as a Mexican
It’s very expensive. I want to get to Formula 1 so
I need to be racing in Europe.
I remember waking up a 3 o’clock in the morning, before going to school,
to call all the european teams.
“Hi, I’m Sergio Perez, I’m a Mexican driver, very fast
Mexican driver, and I have a sponsor.”
That’s what I’ll say because I knew that
if I said that I had a sponsor, they’ll be interested.
So I’ll say “I have a sponsor.”
And yeah, that got their attention.
You know, I remember my Mum going crazy with the bills,
with the telephone bills.
You know, at the end of the month because
you’re just calling everyone
making sure that I will get some proposals.
And she was super, super angry.
She didn’t understand what I was doing, she thought I was playing with the phone.
And I tried to explain to her that I was contacting
the teams, all the teams in Europe to
to get a proposal but
she didn’t understand, she just told me off and she told me not to use the phone again.
And no, no one told me really, how to do things.
It was all on my own.
Checo, you must see that’s unbelievable right?
It’s unbelievable for the age, you know,
for a 14 year old to think all of this,
and yeah it just,
I just feel like it was such a
and advantage you know, because I was a 14 year old but I was thinking like a 30 year old.
And that was pretty impressive.
I called so many different people in Germany and so on.
But there was one, and it was a very small team.
And the guy that I was talking to on the phone, Gunther.
He spoke very bad English.
And I spoke very bad English,
so I think we were both very patient
with eachother.
So we managed to understand each other and
that’s how I got into that team.
Yeah, once I got the proposals it was great, but I didn’t have any money
So it was “Okay, now I have the proposals, so now I have to find the money.”
I was sponsored by Carlos Slim at the time.
I knew Carlos since I was little. I used to travel with Carlos and
he knew that I was racing and so
we had like a relationship.
I think what he saw in me was that
I was different to every other kid in that regard
you know, that I was so hungry for it.
You see a 14 year old kid with
with that level of passion and determination
and I guess it was very hard to say no.
And I had to look after myself.
I didn’t know any English and I was going to live in Germany.
I flew into Munich.
And Gunther, I finally met Gunther.
The guy that I was talking to on the phone.
Yeah we met each other, and I thought like “Wow,
I’m here finally in Europe we’re
going to meet all the F1 drivers and I’m going to be with them and
yeah It’s going to be great fun.”
Once I arrived to Germany,
I realised that what I thought was
was crazy and
we drove for like 40 minutes or so to this very small village in Germany.
I remember it was getting smaller and smaller and
greener and greener and I was like “Wow,
there are no houses around here.
And I ended up in a
in a hotel. At the time I was in a hotel. In a very small one.
And yeah that was super boring.
I would only see Gunther on the weekends.
But all the week, I’d be on my own.
I couldn’t talk to anyone.
And especially in those years,
you know, because with the phone
it was impossible to reach out to people or
to text or anything like that, it was all super expensive.
So it was really difficult.
You know I went from having a normal 14 year old life,
To like, something that’s completely different.
Completely on my own.
I remember that I could only speak to my friends on
What- no not WhatsApp, on Messenger.
But I didn’t have internet with me,
so I would have to go to the office of Gunther.
It was super hard, that part.
And that part is what...
the Latins, we experience because we are the ones that have to come
to Europe at a very young age you know, and
that makes things a lot trickier for us.
After two years in Germany, I came to Oxford.
And I was pretty happy to move.
And Oxford was great, you know I had great friends there and it was so different to
my early time in Germany.
When I was racing in Formula 3,
British F3,
I used to go a lot to a curry place, near by the factory.
We’d go with my boys, with my mechanics,
with my engineers and we’d have a
good time in this curry place.
This guy is a close friend of mine and
he named a curry after me and
it’s a very spicy one so...
It was only until I was in GP2 that
things we looking good.
There was some interest from other teams in Formula 1
And it was looking like I might end up there.
I was told after my GP2 season finished,
that I was going to be driving for Sauber.
And that I was signed with Sauber and
nice events that have happened in my life,
I’ve got a watch.
Once I was testing there,
I managed to buy my watch there.
I remember that my first ever salary, I bought a watch,
or when I had my first kid, when I got married or
it doesn’t really matter how nice
the watch is, it’s about the meaning for me, you know like
it will take me back to that moment, straight away.
One day I will give them to my kids and say “Look,
this watch is for this occasion.” And so on.
Now that I’m a Formula 1 driver I can buy a
a nicer watch!
Everything is about winning in Red Bull and having fun.
so those combinations are
are great in Red Bull. You know it’s what
really makes Red Bull very unique in the sport.
It’s pretty much a guarantee that you will have a strong car,
that you will be able to fight for victories, that you will be able to
to fight pretty much every weekend for it so
it was great to arrive into such a team.
I do it for my family and for myself.
I’m just someone that likes to race and
yeah, I will go for it and try to do the best.