Getting ready to return to the Formula 1 tracks with a brand new 11th team Cadillac in the upcoming 2026 season, Sergio Pérez joined Cracks Podcast, where he talked about the lesser-known side of his F1 career at Force India.
During their conversation, Pérez elaborated on how he rescued them from being bankruptcy and brought Aston Martin into the sport.
Sergio Pérez and a strategic action against his own F1 team Force India
Pérez was the key driver of Force India and Racing Point, before he moved to Red Bull’s second seat in 2021 alongside Max Verstappen. During his time at the wheel of the pink livery, the team went through an administration change, a legal process where an external firm takes control of the company to pay off creditors and find a way to save the business.
Following the 2018 Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix, the team was placed into administration. A group of creditors, including their own driver Pérez, took legal action against the team. He clarified the situation and stated that this was not an attack but rather a strategic move to protect his team from collapsing totally.
Force India’s assets were purchased by a consortium of inverstors led by Lawrence Stroll. As a result, the team was able to be readmitted to the championship under a new name Racing Point Force India.
“Our owner at that time was Vijay Mallya, and he had problems. He is in England now; he can’t leave England. The team had many debts. It hadn’t paid many suppliers, and I was one of the creditors. They hadn’t paid me.
“So I had the option of placing the team under administration. Because if I were to put it under administration, someone would buy us, as a team. When a team is going under the administration process, an administrator is appointed. The administrator then reviews the offers to prevent the team from collapsing.”
Not a selfish reason behind it
Pérez touched upon the fragile aspect of this whole situation, which is people who could have actually lost their jobs and had to start all over again. Knowing how large a group of people working at a Formula 1 team is, Pérez couldn’t just do nothing about them. For them to stay in the sport, the Mexican defended the legal process he initiated against his own team.
The now 35-year-old driver was, in a way, the key actor behind people not losing their jobs, and furthermore, the giant Aston Martin to enter the sport after Racing Point with Lawrence Stroll.
“There were many things. One was not thinking so much about my own career, but more about all the people involved.
“Formula 1 team, you are talking about more than 800 people working at that team, right? Many of them you travel with for many years. So I knew that for them, it could all just end. It could have meant the end of employment for a great many people, for individuals who are very close to me.
“So my manager and I, along with the team principal at that particular time, we couldn’t really see a way out of it. The only way out was perhaps for the team to go into bankruptcy. Well, then everyone had to start all over again. Everyone would be left without a job.
“The option comes up for me to put it into administration so that the buyer can arrive. So we went through the whole legal process, and we put it into administration. Lawrence Stroll buys the team. That’s what Aston Martin is today. I believe that 90% of the people who worked in Force India at that time were able to continue working.”
