Mexico want F1 extension regardless of Sergio Perez’s future
MEXICO CITY — Sergio Perez’s future will have no bearing on the future of Mexico’s F1 race, according to the event organiser.
Perez signed a contract extension with Red Bull for 2025 earlier this year but his lacklustre results since then have left his short-term future under constant speculation.
The Mexico City Grand Prix, held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, has a deal with F1 covering the same timespan — the event is expecting 400,000 fans across this week for the race.
The circuit is already in extension discussions with Formula 1.
“We’re fairly optimistic that we’re going to have a race for many, many years,” event president Alejandro Soberón told select media on Saturday.
While Perez is a national hero in Mexico and a key reason behind the race’s longevity on the schedule since 2015, Soberón dismissed the suggestion the event was linked to his long-term future.
“I would say I’m not that sure that [Perez] is approaching to the end of his career, he’s a great driver having a difficult season, many reasons could be behind that and it’s not for me to talk about that. What I can tell you is the Mexican crowd, the fandom, is very strong for F1 in general. Obviously Checo [Perez] is a great enhancement for this.
“But Mexico has been very close to the heart of F1. We have a much better show on track today to what we had five years ago. I think competition and quality of the spectacle at the track is going to be enough to sustain the interest of the crowd, so we as a promoter of the race we’re very excited tyring to figure out a way to extend out contract regardless of Checo.”
Soberon feels the venue would still have high demand if the grid did not have Perez on it.
“There’s very few races who have a local driver. This year we have enjoyed in general in F1 sold out crowds everywhere and that’s a reflection of the competition and the quality of the show, everybody of course would love to have a local driver, but the first year we did the race here 50% of the fans were in a red T-shirt, so Ferrari has a wonderful following here.
“I leave you with some small arithmetics. We have no more capacity. We could have drawn 600,000 — if we had unlimited capacity we could have another 200,000 here, but we cannot put them.
“That’s why it sold out so fast in one year in advance. Probably without Checo maybe a drop of 20%, 25%, naturally, [but] still would be a sellout.”
Source: espn.com