The Crimson Bull racer speaks to PEOPLE about what fuels him to the end line
Don’t ask for the aux wire when he’s behind the F1 wheel!
Should you’re questioning how the Crimson Bull driver stays centered through the , music just isn’t a part of his technique.
Forward of his extremely anticipated return to the on Friday, Nov. 22, Pérez spoke with PEOPLE completely concerning the mindset that drives his need to win, and he teased a collaboration with Ford that can gasoline Crimson Bull for continued success sooner or later.
“We do not have music. Our music is the engine. It is our engineer,” he says, calling the high-speed car’s hum the “voice of the engineers” because it ticks as much as 200-plus mph throughout its zip across the grid on the famed Las Vegas Strip.
He provides, “That is our engine. That is our track.”
With six Grand Prix wins underneath his belt, the Mexican racing driver — famously nicknamed “Checo” by followers — has discovered a rhythm of his personal since he made his F1 debut in 2011 and gone on to solidify his identify within the historical past books.
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Whereas Pérez is locked in on this yr’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, Crimson Bull Racing already has a watch on a successful future due to a brand new strategic partnership with Ford, which is making its return to Components 1 after twenty years.
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Collectively, they’ll develop the next-gen hybrid energy unit — recognized previously as Crimson Bull Ford Powertrains — for use for the 2026 season and past. To Pérez, the partnership to construct the brand new engines is “nice” merely due to Ford’s historic identify and legacy in Components 1.
“It’s such an iconic model of the game,” he says.
When peak pace of an F1 race automobile reaches a median of round 233 mph (achieved on the circuit’s lengthy straightaways), adrenaline is at an all-time excessive. For Pérez, the frenzy by no means will get previous.
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“You get it on a regular basis,” he says of the joys of driving at max pace. “We drive the quickest automobiles on the planet, and what’s actually spectacular is a cornering pace that you just’re capable of do. That is one thing actually distinctive.”
Now, Pérez is able to speed up to breakneck pace in one of the electrifying atmospheres on the planet: Las Vegas. “The occasion might be, once more, a loopy one,” he says. “It is a totally different one in comparison with the remainder of the races, which is one thing I actually like.”
He provides, “To be sincere, I really like a lot this place that I am simply actually completely satisfied to race in Vegas.”
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Considered probably the most profitable Mexican driver within the historical past of Components 1, Pérez — who started his racing profession in karting, ending his first season in second place in 1996 when he was 6 years previous — says, “It is all the time good in a means to have the ability to take a step again and notice how far you have come.”
Pérez says he is grateful to be within the place he is in when reflecting on the difficult trajectory of the game. “There is a factor with Components 1 drivers that whenever you begin your profession, you might be all the time underneath loads of strain to undergo the ranks,” he says.
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However as for what his six-year-old self would say to a grown Pérez now if he knew all that he’d accomplish to this point? “He would not imagine. He would not imagine in any respect,” he says with a smile.
