- Sergio Perez makes his 300th Formula 1 start at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday, November 1, with 299 starts behind him.
- Perez would tell the rookie he was in 2011 to enjoy even the bad moments, per Motorsport.com, and says there are many moments he wishes he had enjoyed more.
- The 36-year-old has hinted that the end of his Formula 1 career is getting closer, saying “it won’t be much longer.”
The Driver Who Wishes He Had Enjoyed the Ride More
Enjoy it more. Enjoy even the bad moments. That is the advice Sergio Perez would give the driver he was in 2011, the year he began with Sauber. Everything passes very fast, Perez said in an exclusive interview this week, and before you know it you are at the end of your career, with plenty of moments you wish you had enjoyed more.
He says it with 299 Formula 1 starts behind him. The 300th arrives on Sunday at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, round 19 of the 2026 season, in front of his home crowd and in a Cadillac. The celebration opens the week with a public show run on Wednesday along the Paseo de la Reforma through the city, with Perez at the wheel to mark the milestone.
The milestone also carries a second message. The same driver who wants to go back and enjoy more has hinted to a Mexican broadcaster that the end of his career is getting closer.
The Rookie Who Was Not the First Choice
Perez reached Formula 1 through the Escuderia Telmex project, created by Carlos Slim Domit, a member of one of the wealthiest families in the world. He was not the first driver the project considered for a place in the sport. His perseverance moved him into a position to win a seat at Sauber.
Perez recalls that he was the youngest, and that the project had started long before he came along. He was born in Guadalajara on January 26, 1990, which means he turned 21 in January 2011, the year he started with Sauber.
That is the driver he would speak to. After the advice to enjoy the bad moments, Perez would add that the kid was going to get much further than he ever dreamed.
Pressure That Started in Karting
The reason he would tell the rookie to enjoy himself goes back to his earliest racing. Perez said the pressure had followed him from his karting days. If he did not win a race, he might not get to run the next race, or the next championship. When a title did come, he had to start thinking about the one after it. The routine of a sport that competitive, he said, takes you away from enjoying it.
The record shows how far the promise carried him. Perez drove for Sauber, McLaren, Force India, Racing Point and Red Bull before Cadillac. In Sakhir in 2020 he took the chequered flag first, which matched his hero and fellow Mexican Pedro Rodriguez as a Grand Prix winner. That result earned him a seat at Red Bull, where he played a supporting role to Max Verstappen’s championship campaigns and won five more races.
Through 299 starts he has collected 39 podiums, six wins, three pole positions and 1,638 career points, more than any other Mexican in the history of the championship. By his own account, he wishes he had enjoyed more of it.
The Year Away
The break came at the end of 2024, when Perez left Red Bull abruptly. He spent 2025 out of Formula 1, a year on the sidelines, and came back in 2026 with Cadillac. Several of his detractors apologized.
The time away changed how he sees the sport. Perez said his sporting life has gone by very fast, and that only the sabbatical year let him grasp the scale of what he had achieved. He now looks at his return differently.
The comeback has not been easy on the results sheet. Cadillac made its Formula 1 debut in 2026, and Perez, who drives the number 11 car, has no points from 18 Grands Prix this season. He sits 23rd in the standings and has five DNFs. He told Televisa, the Mexican broadcaster, last week that the team’s project “requires more time than I initially thought.”
It Won’t Be Much Longer
The same Televisa conversation produced his remarks about the future. Perez did not name a number of years. “I think giving a specific number [of years] is difficult, but it won’t be much longer,” Perez said.
He named what holds him back. “What really holds me back [from continuing] is my kids.”
He also said how he wants it to finish. “I want to finish my time in Formula 1 on a high note, and all I can say is that we will know when [I retire] soon.”
No retirement has been announced, and Perez has put no number on it. What he has given is a direction. The remaining time is short, his kids are what hold him back from continuing, and the answer comes soon. There is tension in that: he wants a high note, and he says the Cadillac project needs more time than he expected.
Home Crowd, New Team
Before this weekend, Perez had contested nine editions of the Mexican Grand Prix, scoring points at six of them and finishing on the podium in both 2021 and 2022. He did not race in Mexico last year. “I didn’t race here last year, so this year I’m super-excited to be back,” Perez said, adding that “for this to be my 300th grand prix is incredible.”
The race returned to the calendar in 2015 after a 23-year absence and has been a sold-out event every year. The circuit sits at 2,240 meters (7,350 feet), the highest altitude on the Formula 1 calendar. Perez also thanks the fans. “It’s been a huge thing for Mexico to have a driver in F1, and I’ve had amazing support throughout my career, and this is a great opportunity to say thank you to all the fans.”
Team principal Marcin Budkowski, who replaced Graeme Lowdon in the role in August, sees the week the same way. The Mexico City Grand Prix presents a peculiar challenge for any team, he said, and more so for a new one. Budkowski expects the spotlight to land on the team: “our team is naturally going to be the center of attention this year, with Checo celebrating his 300th grand prix in front of his home crowd.”
The job at Cadillac, as Perez sees it, is bigger than his own results. Whatever the finishing order and whether or not he beats his teammate, he remains part of a structure in which helping the whole team develop is what counts. He is still the driver, he said, but his experience in a new team is fundamental. The same goes for Valtteri Bottas, a driver with so much experience who has been with so many teams. The job now, Perez said, is to push a new team in the right directions, and he called that fundamental for the progress of the coming years.
Bottas brings his own Mexico record: pole position and fastest lap in 2021, points on six occasions and podiums in 2015, 2017 and 2019. He holds the race lap record, 1:17.774, set in 2021. Bottas calls the race special: “the noise and the atmosphere is like nowhere else in F1,” he said.
Practice starts Friday, October 30, qualifying follows on Saturday and the race runs on Sunday, November 1. Colton Herta takes the wheel of Bottas’s car for the opening session, his fifth Free Practice 1 appearance with the team. Budkowski says the team will “work hard to give him and Valtteri a car with which they can race hard.” The weekend gives the man who would tell his younger self to enjoy it a home stage for start number 300. Racing at home, Perez said, “always feels great.”
