Mexican driver Checo Pérez with singer Bad Bunny at the Monaco Grand Prix on May 26th. AFP7 via Europa Press (AFP7 via Europa Press)
The streets of Mexico City are covered with a person’s face. Apart from the propaganda of the political campaigns that are beginning, Checo Pérez is the one who saturates the advertising. His face, or rather his helmet, and the Red Bull uniform are part of the landscape. He is the Mexican sports idol of today. There is a special connection with Pérez that has intensified over the last four years. In 2023, the pilot has had a hectic year in terms of commercial announcements and alliances. The Mexican Grand Prix is also the moment in its season when it wants to multiply to meet all the requests from journalists, influencers, friends, partners, politicians…
Mexico hasn’t had a Formula 1 driver since Héctor Rebaque drove for the Parmalat Racing Team in the 1980s. And further back were the legendary Pedro and Ricardo Rodríguez. Sergio Pérez renewed Mexicans’ love of motorsport when he got a job at Sauber in 2011. His godparents were (and are) the Slims, one of the richest families in the world. They supported him and the pilot paid them back a good investment. In his first years in Formula 1 there was no declared Czechomania. It wasn’t until 2015 that the big motorsport circus landed in Mexico to race again. The main ambassador was the boy from Guadalajara and there began to be euphoria for his athlete, who was aiming for one podium place per season.
Everything changed in December 2020 when Red Bull signed him. Finally a Mexican could take a place on a great team and fight for podium places. Euphoria broke out. While the big brands used to shy away from sponsoring a young driver like Pérez, today the multinational corporations are fighting over him. Since his time at Red Bull, he has worked with companies such as Disney, Nestlé and Pepsico. In 2023, his appearances have multiplied as we have seen him promoting car insurance, bank accounts, coffee, chocolate, potato chips, oatmeal, telephone services, internet services, car oil and even tourism in his home country.
The name Checo Pérez has a double virtue: it attracts Mexican audiences at home and first, second and third generations in the United States. Red Bull took advantage of this by using him as the protagonist in a video to promote the Las Vegas Grand Prix on the high street and in casinos. Pérez was also crucial in the rise between the F1 team and Ford, the company that will make Red Bull’s engines from 2026. To this end, he was invited to Jimmy Fallon’s program along with Ford CEO Jim Farley to race in a go-kart Circuit.
Weeks before the start of the Mexican Grand Prix, two songs are already playing as the soundtrack. Bad Bunny released his album Nobody Knows What’s Going to Happen Tomorrow and in his second song MÓNACO he dedicated a few lines to Checo Pérez: “If we drink a lot of champagne, we’re never dry. “First came Verstappen, then came Checo.” The video clip shows the meeting between the Mexican and the Puerto Rican at this year’s Monte Carlo Grand Prix. One of the leaders of the Mexican Regional League, Carín León, premiered “Por la familia,” in which the pilot in the video appears as a taxi driver in the desert.
Czech madness
The Mexican romance with Checo Pérez prompted Red Bull to display its car on the asphalt of the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City in 2021 and on the Minerva in Guadalajara in 2022. This will not happen in 2023. Nevertheless, seven mayors of the capital (Álvaro Obregón, Benito Juárez, Gustavo A. Madero, Iztacalco, Iztapalapa, Miguel Hidalgo and Venustiano Carranza) will organize small festivals following the Mexican Grand Prix. Tickets for the race sold out a year ago, just a few hours after they went on sale. Digital resale ranges from 6,000 pesos to 63,000 pesos. The government of Mexico City estimates that the economic benefit from the introduction of Formula 1 will be 15,624 million pesos (about 873 million dollars).
For Pérez, the excitement has already begun. At the Austin Grand Prix this Sunday, he was the most cheered by the grandstand full of Mexicans and Latinos. His routine in Mexico involves landing on Wednesday to hold a press conference at the Slim family headquarters, attending to requests from his sponsors that include brief conversations, signing a wave of articles and heading to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez for another Talk to the press. the Friday of practice, the Saturday of qualifying and the Sunday of a race where the cry of “Czech!” always rings out.
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