“I was just kicked out”- Segio Perez recalls Red Bull not giving him second chance

“I was just kicked out”- Sergio Perez recalls being rejected by Red Bull back in 2007, even though things were not in his control.

Sergio Perez recalls the time of his youth days when Red Bull rejected him for a spot in their programme as the Mexican had a rough trial session.

In 2007, Perez was in Formula 3 and was invited by Red Bull for a test, but he reveals that he immediately had a problem with the car setup leading to his rejection.

“In 2007, I was invited through my programme to do a test,” Perez recalled on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast. It didn’t go well. I had an issue with the seat because my knees were hitting the wheel so that I couldn’t turn.”

“So I was quite far off the pace. I thought that I was going to be able to sort out the seat and so on. When I went back, I was just kicked out. I didn’t have an extra chance. I was too slow. It was all about lap time. I was just kicked out. I think that was in 2007 or 2006.

“Then I went into Formula 3. I was racing against the Red Bull drivers, and I was leading the championship. I saw him at Silverstone [and said] Helmut, how are you?’

“‘We will beat you, we will beat you’, he was telling me. So, OK, ‘have a nice day Helmut.'”

Another experience with Red Bull men

Perez was supported by Escuderia Telmex, which helped him in his emancipation from F3 to GP2 for the 2009 season, where he raced for Red Bull team boss Christian Horner’s Arden team.

At this time, Perez was also close to joining Red Bull via the Arden team, as his impressive run to the fourth position impressed the Austrian team’s bosses, but Horner, in the end, decided to part ways.

“The other conversation was once in GP2, my first year with Christian,” Perez said. “After one good race I did in Silverstone, he came to me and said, ‘hey, what are you doing?’ and so on.

“He told me, ‘hey, you’re doing alright, but you have your own driver programme; you don’t need me.’ That was the final conversation that we had, that I remember.”

12 years later, destiny has taken a full circle to grant Perez a spot at Red Bull, and the above two men, who rejected him, were instrumental in his appointment.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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