Sergio Perez signs with Sauber for next year
The runner up for the GP2 championship this year, Sergio Perez has signed with Sauber to line-up alongside Kamui Kobayashi for next year in a deal involving Mexican communications giant Telmex.
Perez is set to finish this year’s GP2 championship as the runner up after taking four wins in the series up until now. The 20-year-old driver won the 2007 British F3 championship in the national class and started karting when he was 6 years old.
This means that Nick Heidfeld was signed to race with Sauber for the final five races of this season and will not stay with the team as a full-time driver for the 2011 season.
“Sergio has been on a continuous upward curve over the past few years. He demonstrated his fighting spirit in races over the course of last season and proved that he's ready to take the step up into Formula One”, said Sauber. The team is looking forward
to working with him and the team has no doubts that about this decision as they believe that Sergio and Kamui will have a strong driver pairing.
Perez is very pleased with his decision as well, as it was his dream just like every young driver to race in Formula 1 one day and now, that dream is about to come true for him. Sergio is aware that it is going to be a big challenge and responsibility but
he is happy to accept that and proud to represent his country in the Formula 1.
“I would like to thank Peter Sauber for the faith he's shown in me and I'll do everything I can to make the most of this wonderful opportunity”, he said.
Escuderia Telmex, a driver development programme backed by the world’s richest man Carlos Slim, has supported Sergio since an early age. Telmax corporation will feature heavily on the Sauber cars next year following Sergio’s deal with the team.
Telmex has been involved in the motor sports since quite some time now and supports drivers in various racing series. According to Sauber, they are now making the key step up into the top category of motor racing, Formula 1 and the team is proud and happy
to help them in taking this step. Telmex is going to be a strong partner for Sauber and it is an outstanding company. The team is looking forward to a fruitful partnership with them.
Slim believes that Sauber is a strong talent developer of some of the most recognized names in the racing world since it began and contains some of the most respected people in the sport putting a cherry on top of their successful racing career in the Formula
1. The world’s richest man believes that Sauber’s decision of signing Sergio is very significant for Sergio, as it will help him become a top driver and represent his country Mexico.
“For Telmex and our racing project Escuderia Telmex it's a great step forward, and we feel very proud to be able to consolidate these years of work for having a Mexican driver in F1 with Sauber Motorsport”, said Carlos.
Sauber signed Esteban Gutiérrez as their test driver for next season and he is also a member of Escuderia Telmex.
Sauber has had a rather disappointing season this year with poor performance from Pedro de la Rosa forcing the team to replace him with Mercedes and Pirelli test driver Nick Heidfeld. Nick raced at the last race in Singapore but did not manage to prove that
he is the right man for the job. Heidfeld signed with Sauber for the remainder of the season and will race until November with the team.
There were many rumours that Nick will continue to drive for Sauber in 2011 as well but this changed after the team’s contract signing with Sergio Perez. The team hopes to perform better next year with their 2 new drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutiérrez
alongside Kamui Kobayashi.
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