Sergio P\u00e9rez has opened up about the “very hard” personal difficulty that comes with the fame of being a Formula 1 driver, particularly as the only current driver on the grid from Mexico.<\/p>\n
P\u00e9rez\u2019s first full-time campaign in F1 came with Sauber in 2011, before he went on to race for McLaren, Force India\/Racing Point and, most recently, Red Bull.<\/p>\n
His F1 career was close to ending after he was not retained by Racing Point, but it was saved when Red Bull offered the 35-year-old a contract.<\/p>\n
P\u00e9rez completed four seasons with the Milton Keynes-based outfit before the two parties mutually parted ways at the end of 2024, leading to a one-year sabbatical.<\/p>\n
However, the Mexican hero is back for 2026 with new American F1 team Cadillac. His return to F1 is significant for Mexico, with P\u00e9rez being one of the most followed drivers on the grid.<\/p>\n
While he recognises that he inspires many people, P\u00e9rez \u2014 who has a young family \u2014 has revealed that he struggles with the fame that comes with being an F1 driver, believing he was not born for the spotlight.<\/p>\n
Addressing life as Perez the F1 driver and Perez the family man, the Cadillac driver told the Cracks podcast: “I think I like to separate things. I like to keep my worlds separate; I don\u2019t like mixing them much.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think I\u2019ve done that since I was very young, and in the end, when you\u2019re such a well-known character, you automatically close yourself off, no matter how much you want more relationships or more friends. Your world automatically shrinks a lot.<\/p>\n
“So when I\u2019m with my friends, I already have my friends, and it\u2019s hard to make new friendships in that sense because there are so many people around you that you always feel \u2014 I feel \u2014 very overwhelmed. I\u2019m very private. Fame is very hard for me. You wouldn\u2019t imagine it, but it\u2019s hard for me. I\u2019m a person who wasn\u2019t born to be famous.<\/p>\n
“I think there are people and personalities that are made for fame. For example, my dad is a person born for fame, and he always seeks it and always wants attention, right? And I\u2019m the complete opposite. It\u2019s something that\u2019s always been very hard for me.<\/p>\n
“So fame has always been difficult, and I think that\u2019s why I\u2019ve always separated it and know that this is a very important moment in my life \u2014 a moment where I inspire a lot of people. But it will pass, right? And tomorrow, I hope to be less known in the world and have a calmer life.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sergio P\u00e9rez has opened up about the “very hard” personal difficulty that comes with the fame of being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,827,817,830,828,831,829,826,813,816,823,825,824,822,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-436111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-daniel-ricciardo","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-calendar","13":"tag-f1-live","14":"tag-f1-results","15":"tag-f1-standings","16":"tag-ferrari","17":"tag-formula-1","18":"tag-formula1","19":"tag-lewis-hamilton","20":"tag-max-verstappen","21":"tag-motorsport","22":"tag-racing","23":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}