“Maybe because I’m Mexican”: Sergio Perez blames racism in F1 media for exaggerating his poor Red Bull performances

Sergio Perez feels that he’s targeted by the F1 media and his poor performances are exaggerated because he’s from Mexico. 

Perez moved to Red Bull in 2021 after spending seven seasons with Racing Point (formerly known as Force India). Perez’s last year with Racing Point was extremely impressive, with him getting his first race win in F1. Just weeks after that, however, he lost out on a place in the team when it was announced that Sebastian Vettel would replace him.

Christian Horner and Red Bull came knocking and the Mexican driver earned a seat alongside Max Verstappen. His first season in the Milton-Keynes outfit was full of mixed results. He won his first F1 race for them at the Azerbaijan GP, and also put in some very crucial performances which helped his teammate win the World Championship that year.

2022 has been a very different year for the Guadalajara-born driver. In the opening stages, he was close to Verstappen in terms of performance and a lot of people thought he could challenge for the Title.

Since then, he has had a dip in form and plenty of people came forward to criticize the 32-year-old for wasting opportunities and costing Red Bull points in the Championship battle.

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Sergio Perez silences critics after stunning Singapore GP drive

Perez started the 2022 Singapore GP from P2 after a great qualifying session. He started behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who was looking to get his first race win since the Austrian GP. At the start, however, Perez jumped him comfortably and took control of the race from the get go.

He drove a spectacular race overall and defended Leclerc really well in the closing stages. In spite of getting a five-second penalty for Safety Car infringement, Perez held on to the win to take his second win of the year.

After the race, however, Perez hit back at the people who wrote him off in the last few months. He also accused the media in F1 of exaggerating his struggles just because he’s from Mexico.

“The media in Formula 1 makes it extremely, a lot bigger, maybe because I’m just Mexican,” he said.

“If I’m not two races in a row in the podium, then I’m having a worst season ever. “Red Bull should drop me and all that sort of stuff that you get to see.”

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