Sergio Perez admitted being ‘so depressed’ on his first day driving for 203-race Formula 1 team

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Sergio Perez will hope that the 2024 Formula 1 season isn’t his final year in the sport.

After 285 Grand Prix, six victories and 39 podiums, Sergio Perez was let go by Red Bull after arguably the toughest campaign of his F1 career.

The 35-year-old finished nearly 300 points behind teammate Max Verstappen and was the only driver who drove for one of the top four teams who finished the campaign without a victory.

However, Perez should be remembered for consistently being one of the strongest drivers in the midfield throughout his campaign.

After finishing the 2010 GP2 season as runner-up to Pastor Maldonado, Perez made his debut at Sauber, finishing in the top 10 of the Drivers’ Championship in his second campaign after securing three podium finishes and beating teammate Kamui Kobayashi.

A move to McLaren was completed that winter, but just a year later he moved on after a difficult time alongside Jenson Button.

Button was left unimpressed by Perez last season and their relationship as teammates wasn’t the best.

Speaking on an episode of Beyond The Grid in 2019 before his move to Red Bull, Perez was talking about his F1 career up to that point.

While he didn’t have the best time at McLaren and only tasted brief glimpses of success at Sauber, it wasn’t anything compared to his next move in the paddock.

In 2014, Perez moved to Force India and he couldn’t believe the difference between the 203-race F1 team and his previous employers.

Sergio Perez was ‘so depressed’ when he joined Force India in 2014

Perez spoke about his switch from McLaren to Force India and the role Carlos Slim – one of his primary backers – played in the move.

He said: “It was hard to digest but before we knew it, we had the deal with Force India.

“He always supported me and the deal with Force India basically came thanks to him.

“I remember the first day I ever went to the Force India factory, I was so depressed.

READ MORE: Sergio Perez’s life outside F1 from net worth to nickname

“I think probably McLaren is the best factory in the world and then I went to the Force India [factory] with the contract signing and I was like no way I’m coming here.

“I was like, let’s do one year and then let’s go back to Mexico and do something else.

“So I lost all my passion, you know, I was really knocked down by… the McLaren thing really knocked me down in my career.

“But then I remember starting the year with Force India and in my third race I’m on the podium and it was like okay this is what I want.”

Sergio Perez saved Force India before Lawrence Stroll’s intervention

Perez raced for Force India from 2014 until the middle of the 2018 season when they became Racing Point.

His results were steady throughout, averaging a podium every season before Lawrence Stroll led a consortium that took over the team when Force India faced financial trouble.

The Mexican driver bizarrely brought action against Force India to help ‘save the team’ and the 400 or so employees they had at the time.

READ MORE: What Lawrence Stroll ‘couldn’t believe’ he was seeing during his first visit to Force India’s F1 factory

Talking about it at the time to F1’s official website, he said: “Monies due are from last year. “The thing is, there was a winding up petition from another customer, which would have closed down the team completely.

“Therefore I was asked to save the team, to pull the trigger and put the team into administration.

“It was nothing to do with my outstanding amounts. The only reason I have done it was to save the team and for the better future for the team.”

Otmar Szafnauer paid millions of his own money to fund Force India staff members’ salaries when the team’s crisis was at its worst and Perez’s hand was forced to try and save the team.

Racing Point’s fortunes quickly improved and Perez finished fourth in the Drivers’ Championship in 2020 driving a car dubbed the ‘Pink Mercedes’ to earn his move to Red Bull.

The team’s identity also changed and now exists under the Aston Martin moniker with Lawrence Stroll still at the helm and his son Lance Stroll joined by Fernando Alonso

The rest is history, and while he never came close to winning a championship with Christian Horner’s team, he did enjoy a much more successful period than his depressing start to life at Force India.