The Mexican F1 Drivers Who've Dominated Formula 1
From the current F1 drivers Mexican Formula 1 is mainly represented by Sergio Pérez, who is the most successful Mexican racing driver.
All in all, Mexico has had six Formula One drivers since the championship started in 1950.
Mexican Drivers Performance Overview in F1
Before I get into more details about individual Mexican F1 drivers, I’ll show you the overall performance of the country in Formula 1:
| Drivers | 6 |
| Grands Prix | 375 |
| Entries | 440 |
| Starts | 418 |
| Best Season Finish | 3rd (2022) |
| Wins | 8 |
| Podiums | 41 |
| Pole Positions | 3 |
| Fastest Laps | 13 |
| Points | 1518 |
| First Entry | 1961 Italian Grand Prix |
| First Win | 1967 South African Grand Prix |
| Latest Win | 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix |
| Latest Entry | 2023 Japanese Grand Prix |
| 2023 Drivers | Sergio Pérez |
With only six drivers participating in Formula 1, Mexico has a pretty impressive performance.
Sadly, no Mexican driver has ever won a World Drivers Championship since the country’s entry in F1 in 1961.
If anyone has a chance at achieving that, it’s the current Mexican racing driver, Sergio Pérez. He last won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2023 in second place and throughout his career, he’s won six races and achieved 3 pole positions consecutively. Quite a record!
Below, I’ll get into more details about the all-time Mexican drivers and the current ones, so keep reading!
All-Time Mexican F1 Drivers
Have a look at the six Mexican F1 drivers who have ever raced since Formula One was created:
| Drivers | Active Years | Race Starts | Wins | Podiums | Career Points | Poles | Fastest Laps |
| Ricardo Rodríguez | 1961-1962 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Moisés Solana | 1963-1968 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pedro Rodríguez | 1963-1972 | 55 | 2 | 7 | 71 | 0 | 1 |
| Héctor Rebaque | 1977-1981 | 41 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Esteban Gutiérrez | 2013-2014, 2017 | 59 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| Sergio Pérez | 2011-2023 | 251 | 6 | 34 | 1424 | 3 | 11 |
In terms of career points, first is Sergio Pérez, then Pedro Rodríguez, and then Héctor Rebaque.
With the exception of Sergio Pérez and Pedro Rodríguez, the rest of the Mexican drivers didn’t have any notable achievements.
Pérez also has 1424 career points, which makes him the 18th driver in all of Formula 1 history in terms of career points. First on the list is Lewis Hamilton with 4997.5 points.
But we’ll talk about Sergio Pérez in more detail below.
How Many Mexican Drivers Are Now on the Grid?
The only Mexican driver who is on the 2023 grid is Sergio Pérez, who is currently driving for Red Bull and is the teammate of Max Verstappen.
Let’s take a look at this story below!
Sergio Pérez
Sergio Pérez was born on the 26th of January, 1990, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He’s now 33 years old and is currently driving for Red Bull Racing during the 2023 season.
He’s had 255 entries (251 starts) throughout his career, with 6 races won, 34 podiums, and a total of 1424 career points. He’s also gained the pole position 3 times and achieved 11 fastest laps.
His first entry was during the 2011 Australian Grand Prix with Sauber, where he finished seventh. At 21 years old, he was one of the youngest drivers on the track. That first year wasn’t anything too impressive, with Pérez even suffering an accident during the Monaco Grand Prix.
In the 2012 season, Pérez duelled with Fernando Alonso but failed to overtake the Spanish driver in the last few laps. Still, he won the public’s attention.
It wasn’t until 2020, during the Sakhir Grand Prix, that he won his first race. He overtook Esteban Ocon and his teammate Lance Stroll, achieving the first win as a Mexican driver since Pedro Rodríguez 50 years before him at the Belgian Grand Prix. The Mexican flag flew proudly that day!
2020 had been his best season thus far, managing to beat Max Verstappen during the Turkish Grand Prix and getting a podium alongside Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel after the last race.
From 2021 onward, he joined Red Bull Racing alongside Max Verstappen and went on to deliver consistent results – the second win of his career and the first while driving for Red Bull, multiple podiums on consecutive weekends, and a magnificent team play with Verstappen in Abu Dhabi.
The 2022 season was the best of his career so far, since he scored 305 championship points, 2 wins, the first pole position in his career, 3 fastest laps, and 11 podiums. All achieved in that one season, setting a new record for himself.
As for the 2023 season, Pérez has been tussling with Verstappen, taking each other’s lead from Grand Prix to Grand Prix.
He even got the Driver of the Day award in Hungary, after finishing third. Sergio Pérez is a consistent achiever in the sport, and the most successful Mexican driver in history. Sadly, he hasn't won any World Championship so far.
It remains to be seen how he’ll perform for the rest of the season and what victories he'll achieve!
Checkout the drivers from other countries in our other nationality-based posts: