The Ace In The Pack

From barely employable to irresistable, Sergio Pérez is now one of the hottest properties on the 2017 driver market. F1 Racing investigates how he turned his career around.

- Stuart Codling

Whoever would have thought, when Sergio Pérez was chewed up and spat out by McLaren at the end of 2013, that two-and-a-half seasons down the line he would become such a pivotal figure in the driver market? And yet that’s how it’s turned out. The top three teams confirmed their 2017 line-ups early, but there are vacancies up and down the grid, depending on where Pérez chooses to go – or stay.

At the end of 2013 he didn’t have much of a choice. But, since then, he’s addressed many of the perceived shortcomings in his technique and approach, becoming a more complete driver, albeit one now eyeing a future beyond the environment that rehabilitated him.

“It’s been a long way, now that I look back,” he says. “Two or three years that feel more like five. My time at McLaren was a big lesson, in every respect. I learned a lot. It was a hard lesson, being in a top team, riding high, then all of a sudden – Boom! All over.” He strikes the table for emphasis.

“My career was more or less over at that point, you know? The McLaren decision [to replace him with Kevin Magnussen for 2014] came late in the year, and there weren’t many teams available. I wasn’t willing to go to just any team for the sake of staying in F1. I wanted to go to a team that would give me the hunger to continue in the sport.

The Force India deal was the best thing to happen in my career. I’ve grown so much in the past two-and-a- half years as a driver, and I’m happy and grateful for where I am. We’ll see what happens in the next few years.”