Sergio Pérez: What Red Bull Never Revealed About My Shock Exit (E422)

You say it's the hardest job as a Formula 1 driver sharing a team with Max? The toughest. I was going into a project that was built for Max. First time I met Christian, he told me, we go racing with two cars because we have to, otherwise we will be super happy just to race with one car. I said, look, I come here and I make the most of it in all regards. Sergio Pérez wins in Azerbaijan to take his sixth career victory, to beat his team mate. I over deliver in all areas. Even for me that I'm mentally, I feel mentally very strong. They were very, very tough and I would say toxic. You know, I didn't want to leave the sport that has given me everything in those terms. I can show myself that I'm one of the best and I want to do that.
Sergio, welcome to High Performance. Yeah, thanks for having me. So look, this conversation isn't just for Formula 1 fans. This is for anyone who wants to understand why hard work matters, why dreams are not always what they seem. And I honestly think that the conversation we can have over the next hour or so can change the way that people view what life is really like for a Formula 1 driver at the top of their sport. Definitely. Before we come to the present day and talk about Cadillac and the amazing project that you're involved in there, we want to go right back to the beginning. Teenage, Sergio, living in Mexico with a dream. What were you doing at that point in your life to make Formula 1 a reality rather than just a dream?
To be honest, when I started, it was just a dream. And I knew that it was such a far dream because in Mexico, we never had Formula 1 drivers. I never grew up with F1 drivers looking at it. And I knew Formula 1 wasn't that big. It was more about the IndyCar in the US and nearby.
I don't come from a family with lots of money to be able to go to Europe. I always wanted to race karts in Europe because I believed I was one of the best in the world because I was doing karting at a very high level. I was like 12 racing drivers of like 25 American drivers that were doing well. But I never had the opportunity to come to Europe because it was too expensive. But more importantly in karting, I knew that I had to win the championship I was in, Shifter 125s. I had a special license. I was 12 and you can only drive the championship, I think, with 16 minimum. So I had a special license. How did you get a license to do it for you? Because of my level. Like I won the championship at ADCC. So the next was 125 But I was too young for it. I was too young for the ADCC. So they gave me a special license. And if I won that championship, I will get the opportunity to drive for, to do a test in a skip bar, which is a series in the US.
So I was leading that championship and I was leading it by a margin. And I had a crash with one of the guys that was very influential in the Mexican Federation. And long story short, they removed my license. So I couldn't finish the championship. I didn't won the championship. So I thought like, it's all over. You know, like I quit from karting because I thought like, if I don't get that opportunity to go with the Scuderia Telmex there, what's going to be, you know, how far I will make it. So I'm wasting my time here. And then Carlos Lim and Jimmy Morales, the owners of Scuderia, they found out about it. They called my dad and I came from back from school. And my dad told me, hey, Carlos called me. I had a war with him and with Jimmy. And they said, don't worry, you will be doing the test in Skid Barrel with the championship, you too. The whole project was very much biased into the US. And I knew that I wanted to come to Europe. I wanted to race in Europe, but I had to convince Carlos because they didn't want to invest too much money in a 14 year old boy. You don't know how good he is going to be. So I was always trying to convince him, writing him on Messenger, you remember, MSN. What were you saying? Like Carlos, look, I got a new offer from a new team.
They want me. It's like, they want you? For how much? You know, like they, because they want you, yes. But at the end of the day, it comes a story that you say, how you attract them, you know? I knew I had to wake up like at 3 a.m. in the morning to fund all the teams in Germany to get proposals. All I will say is, you know, I have a big sponsor, big money, and I'm very fast. You know, it's what I will say. You know, I have a big sponsor, big money. Carlos Lim, Carlos Lim. And when I told them Carlos Lim, they were like, OK, so now we're talking. But the money wasn't guaranteed. You didn't have big money. The problem is like, I have a lot of money, but they don't want to spend it, you know, like so. And they were giving me offers to drive in Formula BMW in Germany, but they were all very expensive. So I kept sending those offers to Carlos. He was like, no, that's too much money, too much. And then all of a sudden, I found that less than 50% of the budget to do the Formula BMW with a team, with a team that had one car in their garage, a team that finished, they had one truck, they didn't have mechanics or engineer.