F1 Flashback: The Year Sergio Perez Put Himself Into The Formula One Big League

Our previous Formula One flashback saw the journey of an underdog team and an underrated driver nearly achieving the midfield dream of a world championship. This time, we take a look at the not-so-distant past when a driver may not have enjoyed the same success, but cemented himself as one the best in the midfield today. Coincidentally, he’s also made his F1 debut at Sauber. We’re talking about Sergio Perez and the 2012 season that put him into a top team’s potential roadmap. 

Born on January 26, 1990, in Guadalajara, Mexico, Sergio Perez had a decent ride up through the ranks of junior single-seater series, with a 2007 British F3 title and a 2nd place overall in the 2010 GP2 series. These results, combined with sponsorship backing from Telmex, earned him his Formula One debut with Sauber for the 2011 season. This made him the fifth Mexican driver to compete in F1 and the first since Hector Rebaque who last competed in 1981. Yes, his signing was somewhat of a pay driver signing, but his junior record was enough to convince Ferrari to sign him as a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy in late-2010. Let’s not forget that three time world champion Niki Lauda also made his F1 debut as a pay driver and look how that turned out. 

His first race in Australia already caught eyeballs with 7th place finish. While that result was taken away due to a technical infringement, the highlight of the result was due to him being the only one in the field to stage a bold 1-stop strategy. The rest of his season was a bit up and down, not helped with unlucky technical retirements. Through all of that, there was one particular skill that stood out. And that was strong race pace and great tyre management. This was a skill that coincided with the introduction of Pirelli’s high degradation tyres, which put more emphasis on tyre management. From there, Perez, his teammate Kamui Kobayashi, and Sauber’s momentum was set to hit some great heights for the 2012 season. 

Perez kicked off 2012 with a closely fought 8th place finish at Melbourne, but the race that got him huge praises came straight away at the second round in Malaysia. The race itself was chaotic with wet weather and red flag stoppages. Through all of that, Perez and Sauber pulled off a great strategy to put himself in 2nd place on a damp track. What’s more, the car was quick and Perez was reeling in a 7 second gap to race leader Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari. Within seven laps he was right on his gearbox with the potential to swipe the lead in the closing stages of the race. Unfortunately, an off-track excursion caused him to lose 5 seconds to Alonso and he had to settle for 2nd and his first podium in F1. While some would say, Alonso was the hero of the weekend for dragging the Ferrari to that race win, it was actually Sergio Perez who was praised around the paddock for bringing a fantastic result for Sauber and nearly scoring a first win. 

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After a four-race streak with no points, Perez returned to points scoring by coming 3rd at the Canadian Grand Prix, his second podium. What’s special about this result is that this wasn’t a race affected by wet weather, but the high tyre wear played perfectly into the hands of Perez and Sauber. A great display of tyre management saw the Mexican wind up on the podium after starting 15th on the grid.  

 

After a set of consistent results, another chance of a race win was presented at the Italian Grand Prix. Starting 12th, he soldiered on by going on for a long first stint to have fresher tyres for the end of the race. And it did pay off as he was slicing through the field and was up to 2nd place and closing down McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton for the race win. However, he simply ran out of laps to finish 2nd, only 4 seconds behind Hamilton. While the lack of laps cost Perez a possible win again, it was another great result for Sauber. The rest of 2012 was pretty unlucky with technical failures and crashes, but it was enough to give Perez the 10th rank in the overall standings. His teammate Kamui Kobayashi also had a strong year, including his first podium, with 3rd at Suzuka, finishing only 6 points behind Perez in the standings in 12th place. All this gave Sauber a strong 6th in the constructors standings.

The year 2012 itself was memorable for arguably being the last competitive F1 season since the early-1980s, with eight winners that year, with up to eight teams within a shot of a podium. There were many standout drivers that year, but Sergio Perez’s season put him in a strong position for a race seat at Ferrari considering he was a Ferrari Academy driver. Instead, he signed up for McLaren in 2013, thereby ending his association with the Ferrari Driver Academy. 

In hindsight, this was the best possible move for a championship contending car at the end of the 2012 season because McLaren was the quickest car at the time despite the poor reliability record. However, unfortunate circumstances put Perez in a McLaren right at the start of the team’s major downfall. Despite giving Jenson Button a good run for his money, he was replaced for 2014, which was very difficult to justify considering the poor 2013 car that gave McLaren its worst winless season at the time since 2006 and no podiums. 

There was, however, a silver lining as Perez was signed up by Force India/Racing Point in 2014, and from then on, his reputation has not only been fixed, but is now stronger than ever. The longest-serving racer for the team to date, he’s gone up against strong teammates like Nico Hulkenburg and Esteban Ocon, with five more podium finishes over the years and consistent top 10 championship finishes. 

As things stand, Perez has already committed to Racing Point till 2021 and it could be fruitful. That’s because Racing Point is set to get a boost with a rebrand into Aston Martin in 2021. In addition, Racing Point’s RP20 is similar to the 2019 championship winning Mercedes W10 and has shown omnius pace in pre-season testing. 

Could Sergio Perez finally take a win, let alone fight for the title, given the competitive machinery? Past years have proven that there is potential with his podiums in midfield cars. There are many tantalising prospects for Perez’s future with his confidence in the RP20, the Aston Martin rebrand, and the 2022 regulations. However, all this will only be proven once we’re racing again. 

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