Following an announcement earlier this week, time seems to have officially been called on Sergio Perez’s Formula One career – at least for now.
The Mexican suffered a dismal 2024, finishing eighth in the drivers’ championship, a whopping 285 points behind his teammate Max Verstappen.
However, the demoralised, error-prone Perez that was seen this year doesn’t represent the 34-year-old’s legacy in the sport.
281 Grand Prix starts, six wins, three pole-positions and 39 podiums is a healthy return that most F1 drivers could only dream of, with Perez having to wait almost a decade to enjoy the majority of that success.
Reflecting on his fine Formula One career, we look back at five of Checo’s finest drives across his 13 years in the sport.
5. 2012 Italian Grand Prix
During the early stages of his Formula One career, Sergio Perez began to hone his trade as a ‘tyre-whisperer’, showcasing the attribute on multiple occasions during his breakout 2012 campaign.
Pulling off an alternate strategy is something that became synonymous with the Mexican throughout his time in F1 and the 2012 Italian Grand Prix was a shining example of that.
Qualifying twelfth, Perez started on the hard-tyre and ran a long first-stint, letting others pit whilst he got into a groove and began to show front-running pace.
The Sauber had brilliant speed in the race throughout the season which made Perez’s job all the easier, however he still had work to do himself, dispatching of Nico Rosberg, Bruno Senna, Paul di Resta, teammate Kamui Kobayashi, and Kimi Raikkonen.
His first tyre-change dropped him from the lead to eighth, but Perez made haste while the Italian sun shined on his new rubber and after overtaking Raikkonen again, a drive-through penalty for Sebastian Vettel and a second stop for Michael Schumacher, the Sauber driver found himself in fourth.
Moving past the Ferrari pair of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso didn’t make Perez a popular customer with the Tifosi, but Checo cared not, as he entered the final few laps closing in on race leader Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton would ultimately win, but only five seconds clear of a charging Perez who took his third and final podium of the season, before replacing the race-winner that day at McLaren in 2013.
4. 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
The start of the 2023 campaign was arguably Perez’s best spell at Red Bull Racing, with the Mexican taking two race wins from the first four Grand Prix that year.
Azerbaijan stands out in particular due to the fact that it’s one of the very few occasions during his four seasons at Red Bull that Perez was legitimately faster than Verstappen on pure pace.
Dubbed the ‘King of Baku’ by race engineer Hugh Bird, Perez laid claim to the throne earlier on in the weekend, surpassing pole-sitter Charles Leclerc to take victory in the Sprint.
However, he had further work to do if he wanted to win the main race, having to surpass both Verstappen and the Monegasque driver.
Both Red Bull’s easily disposed of the Ferrari in the race’s opening stages, with the world champion ahead of Perez.
So often had Verstappen disappeared into the distance in this scenario, with the Mexican seemingly helpless when aiming to match his teammates pace.
However, in Baku, he could.
Differing strategies ultimately benefited Perez following a safety car period, and when battle resumed, he managed to coax out a lead gradually until the end of the race, looking to have pace in hand over the Dutchman.
Living up to his reputation as the master of the street circuits, Perez had outclassed his teammate in a season where victory eluded Verstappen only three times, perhaps his finest showing of out-right pace when directly compared to Max.
3. 2022 Singapore Grand Prix
On a weekend where Red Bull didn’t appear to have the dominant car-performance they had begun to enjoy in the latter stages of 2022, Perez grabbed the Singapore Grand Prix by the horns and firmly made it his own.
Lining up second on the grid, the Mexican overtook Leclerc at the start to move into the lead before disappearing into the distance, closely followed by the Ferrari with the two leaving the rest of the pack in their dust.
The treacherous conditions took world-class consistency to master, especially around a track as precarious as Singapore.
No mistakes allowed, or the chance of victory would disappear.
Others faltered, namely Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen who both suffered uncharacteristic error-filled Grand Prix, but not Perez.
Trouble emerged as it was rumoured that a five-second penalty would be heading the Red Bull driver’s way, as he did not stay within 10 car lengths of the safety car at the second restart after being warned about the same offence at the first one.
However, Perez stepped up to perhaps the highest performance level he achieved throughout his career for the remainder of the Grand Prix, miraculously building a seven-second gap to Leclerc to ensure his victory would remain legitimate.
Driving out of his skin, the street circuit specialist added Singapore, alongside Baku and Monaco to his desirable repertoire, on a very good day for Perez and Red Bull.
Through wet-dry conditions, pressure from Leclerc in the Ferrari and a looming time-penalty, Checo remained cool and composed to emphatically triumph on the most testing stage.
2. 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix
In typically damp conditions at the Sepang International Circuit, an inspired call to switch to the wet-tyre paid dividends for Perez, who started the Grand Prix ninth but soon found himself within touching distance of his first F1 victory.
McLaren had locked out the front-row, but a mixture of incidents and bad-strategy had removed the Woking-based team from the running, with the typically opportunistic Fernando Alonso there to pick up the pieces.
Perez led the race after the switch to the wets but after the next round of stops, Alonso had jumped Checo to take P1.
Ringing the neck out of his Sauber, extracting all the pace he could, Perez cut the Spaniard’s advanatge down from seven seconds to only one with it looking like only a matter of time before the young prospect moved back into the lead.
It’s easy to forget that this was race two in only Perez’s second season in the sport, due to the maturity the Mexican was oozing throughout the Grand Prix.
As he closed in on the Ferrari’s gearbox, a series of mistakes perhaps reminded onlookers that Perez still had some things to learn, having to harness his eagerness and not try to snatch the opportunity too quickly.
Ultimately, these wide moments on a slippery track cost Perez victory, but P2 was a worthy consolation prize regarding the excellent performance from the then 22-year-old.
It was Sauber’s best result as an independent team and Perez’s first podium in F1, and twelve years later the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix is still remembered as one of his finest moments in a racing car.
1. 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix
The 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, Sergio Perez’s crowning achievement, a race that will be talked about as the Mexican’s finest hour for generations to come.
Pressure can make or break drivers in Formula One and the stakes couldn’t have been higher for Sergio at the end of 2020.
Despite regularly outperforming his Racing Point teammate Lance Stroll, the team had decided to sign Sebastian Vettel for the following year as they transitioned into Aston Martin.
There was one seat left on the grid for Perez to aim for – and it was at Red Bull.
It was all, or nothing.
His future in the sport, everything he’d worked towards, was on the line.
And when the Formula One circus went racing on an alternative layout at the Sakhir International Circuit, Perez grasped the opportunity.
However, it was far from straightforward.
He qualified fifth and got an excellent start, moving up to third before a scuffle with Leclerc and Verstappen saw Perez spun out and relegated to the back of the field, seemingly out of the fight for the podium on lap one.
This came a week after a late engine failure had taken a certain podium away from him and handed it to Alex Albon, his main competitor for the Red Bull seat.
However, when the going got tough, Perez got racing.
From 18th, he mounted an astounding charge back to win. A telling overtake on a shell-shocked Albon made for great viewing – with Checo determined to salvage a result from the harrowing situation.
Working his way up to second, a series of catastrophic errors from Mercedes removed George Russell from the lead on his Silver Arrows debut, allowing Perez to coast home to a first race win.
After 190 races he had finally stood on the top step of the podium – the longest wait of any F1 race winner.
Just over two weeks later, Perez was awarded the second Red Bull seat, where he would go on to taste more success in the following four seasons.
Yet still, if it wasn’t for that night in Sakhir, we may have wished farewell to the Mexican some time ago.
Whilst the past few years haven’t been kind on Perez, performances such as the five listed above are how we wish to remember the 34-year-old, an unrelenting, intelligent and opportunistic driver who always capitalised on the chaos regularly ensuing around him to maximise results and defy the odds.
