Perez: “Experience at McLaren taught me to be professional”

Perez’s return After a year on the bench, Sergio Perez is ready to buckle up again. The Mexican will get back into the game by embracing the challenge of Cadillac, the “Cinderella” of Formula 1 which wants to amaze with a team with a very strong American imprint. Mario Andretti’s team has chosen a safe second-hand option, focusing on the duo of Checo and Valtteri Bottas: their performances will certainly be conditioned by the speed of the car, but there is no doubt that their experience will be of help to a team making its debut in F1, which is also in the midst of a regulatory revolution. The #11 then returns to a Circus that no longer sees Red Bull as the owner, but another of its “ex”, McLaren: in a recent interview hosted on the Cracks podcast, Perez spoke about the Woking team, for which he raced in 2013, even replacing Lewis Hamilton. Perez’s words It was certainly not an easy year for the Mexican. After two excellent seasons at Sauber, the move to a bigger team (even though McLaren’s dark period began in that very season) was traumatic: “It taught me not to give up, to learn a lot from bad moments. I learned a lot. I was young and immature in many things. I could have been more professional, I could have done things differently, supporting the team in difficult moments and taking on different attitudes.” Perez was dropped after just one season in favor of Kevin Magnussen. From this failure, however, he was able to recover with seven excellent seasons in Force India/Racing Point, sealed by his first victory in Formula 1 (which arrived in Bahrain in 2020) and the second call to a big one, in Red Bull where he was important in winning the 2021 title.