“I went on a plane with a one-way ticket” – Sergio Perez did all he could to land a racing opportunity in Europe, and there’s been no looking back ever since for the Red Bull star.
Sergio Perez had it tough, despite being a karting star in Mexico and being sponsored by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. He wanted to race in Europe, just like his older brother, but Slim wasn’t too keen.
Cut to now, and he is driving for a 4-time world champion team and is doing a good job while at it. Ahead of the home race in Mexico, Sergio Perez spoke to Red Bull about his story-like journey from Mexico to Milton Keynes.
“My older brother was racing in Formula Ford in the UK and I saw the level of competitiveness they had in Europe, and I knew, if I want to make it into Formula 1, then I have to go to Europe,
“But, obviously, the next factor was finding the money. I was sponsored by Carlos Slim at the time, but he didn’t want to do the jump into Europe because he thought that I was too young.
“So, I just went into the BMW website and found all the team contact details – the emails, basically. I emailed them all to try to convince them to take me because I was a very good Mexican driver.
“It was pretty funny, because of the time difference in Mexico I had to wake up at four in the morning, three in the morning, to make phone calls.
“But in the end, I got proposals from all the teams and they were all too expensive, and then all of a sudden, I found one that was very attractive, very cheap. I spoke to the owner and struck a bond with him over the phone call.
“I went on a plane with a one-way ticket.”
