Sergio Perez has had a tough time in the 2023 Formula 1 season. He has been thoroughly beaten by his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen and has been under immense pressure. His frequent mistakes, scratchy qualifying, and Helmut Marko haven’t helped his cause. However, he feels that a lot of the criticism he receives is amplified due to him being Mexican. He even compared his situation to that of George Russell in the Mercedes.
Racism within the Red Bull camp
Sergio Perez has had to deal with racism in Formula 1 throughout his life. However, currently, he has to deal with racism from his own team, Red Bull.
Just last month, Helmut Marko, Red Bull Chief Advisor, made extremely racist remarks toward Sergio Perez. He said, “We know that he has problems in qualifying, he has fluctuations in form, he is South American and he is just not as completely focused in his head as Max [Verstappen] is or as Sebastian [Vettel]”.
Helmut Marko later apologized for his comments. However, even later, he fired shots at “people” in Formula 1 for orchestrating the outrage against him because he didn’t feel he was as wrong as it was made out to be.
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Racism in the Media
Sergio Perez recalled an incident that happened with George Russell in Singapore this year. George Russell was in 3rd place and in contention for a win. However, he made an error on the last lap and crashed. Sergio believes Russell’s crash wasn’t as scrutinized as his by the Formula 1 media, and took shots at his team as well.
Sergio Perez said, “We saw it with [George] Russell, in the last race he crashed on the last lap while second and they don’t talk about it.”
“That happens at Red Bull and you have three hundred media saying that they have to take you out of your position.”
“That’s also how the team environment works and I also feel that the fact I’m Mexican is a big reason why.”
Nothing New
Last year as well, Sergio Perez had to deal with immense criticism during a poor run. However, he silenced his critics with a win for Red Bull in Singapore. He said, “This is how we do it man, we shut our mouths and we work hard. We do it the Mexican way. Good job guys!”
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