Road to Formula 1

He was born on 26 January 1990 in Guadalajara, in the Mexican state of Jalisco. He first drove a kart at six and left for Europe at 14: in 2005 he raced in German Formula BMW, then spent two seasons in British Formula 3, winning the National class in 2007 and finishing fourth in the International class in 2008.

Next came the GP2 Asia Series, where he won his very first race, in Bahrain, and two seasons in the main GP2 series, in 2009 and 2010. In 2010 he was runner-up to Pastor Maldonado, with wins at Monaco, Silverstone, Hockenheim, Spa and Abu Dhabi. Before his debut he was part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, and he became its first graduate to reach the World Championship.

Debut and Sauber

He made his debut for Sauber at the Australian Grand Prix on 27 March 2011 — the first Mexican in the World Championship since Héctor Rebaque in 1981. He ran the race on a single pit stop and finished seventh, but was excluded from the results because his car did not comply with the technical rules. His first points came at the Spanish Grand Prix on 22 May 2011 with ninth place. In Monaco he crashed in qualifying and missed both that race and the following Canadian Grand Prix; his best result of the season was seventh at the British Grand Prix on 10 July 2011.

He took his first podium at the Malaysian Grand Prix on 25 March 2012: starting ninth, he spent the second half of the race hunting down the leader, Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari, and finished second. That season he was also third at the Canadian Grand Prix on 10 June 2012, having started 15th, and second at Monza on 9 September 2012 from 12th on the grid.

McLaren, Force India and Racing Point

He spent 2013 at McLaren alongside Jenson Button: their close fight at the Bahrain Grand Prix on 21 April 2013 ended with Pérez in sixth, and his best result of the year was fifth at the Indian Grand Prix on 27 October 2013. From 2014 he drove for Force India, which was renamed Racing Point in 2019. He finished third at the Bahrain Grand Prix on 6 April 2014, in Russia on 11 October 2015, in Monaco on 29 May 2016, at the European Grand Prix in Baku on 19 June 2016 and in Azerbaijan on 29 April 2018.

In 2020 he missed the British Grand Prix on 2 August and the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix on 9 August after testing positive for coronavirus, with Nico Hülkenberg standing in. On his return he finished second at the Turkish Grand Prix on 15 November 2020, and on 6 December 2020 he won the Sakhir Grand Prix: after contact with Charles Leclerc at Turn 4 on the first lap he dropped to the back of the field, and a long stint on medium tyres carried him to victory. It was the first win by a Mexican in the championship since the Belgian Grand Prix on 7 June 1970, won by Pedro Rodríguez. On 18 December 2020 Red Bull announced that he would be Max Verstappen’s team-mate in 2021.

Red Bull

He took his first win for Red Bull at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on 6 June 2021. On 7 November 2021 he finished third at the Mexico City Grand Prix — the first Mexican to lead his home race and to stand on its podium.

He took his first pole at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on 27 March 2022, won the Monaco Grand Prix on 29 May 2022 and the Singapore Grand Prix on 2 October 2022, and finished the championship third. In 2023 he won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on 19 March from pole and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on 30 April, took pole in Miami on 7 May and finished runner-up to Verstappen. All his wins for Red Bull — Baku twice, Monaco, Singapore and Jeddah — came on street circuits. In 2022 and 2023 Red Bull won the Constructors’ Championship with him in the team.

On 4 June 2024 the team extended his contract to the end of 2026, but on 18 December 2024 the two sides announced that they were parting ways. He spent the 2025 season out of the championship.

2026 season

On 26 August 2025 Cadillac — the championship’s 11th team, backed by General Motors — announced Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as its drivers for its first season, on multi-year contracts. The 2026 season runs to new technical regulations: new power units with a larger share of electrical power, and active aerodynamics. He finished his first race for Cadillac, the Australian Grand Prix on 8 March 2026, in 16th place after starting 18th; on 14 June 2026 at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix and on 5 July 2026 at the British Grand Prix he finished 14th.