Sergio Pérez will join Force India for its 2014 Formula One campaign, partnering Nico Hülkenberg on a “multi-year” deal.
After driving for the Sauber and McLaren F1 teams , this will be the third team that the young Mexican is driving for in three-year career in the pinnacle of motorsport. The move to join Force India after just a year with McLaren comes after a spate of challenging race weekends and McLaren’s eagerness to promote 21-year old Dane Kevin Magnussen.
It’s great to announce my new team as Sahara Force India,” said Pérez. “Coming here was always my first choice and I’m really happy everything has now been confirmed.”
McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh shamelessly promoted Pérez’s services to rival teams and after weeks of negotiations, a deal was penned with Force India.
“I want to say thank you to (team boss) Vijay (Mallya) and the whole team for giving me the opportunity. This is a young team with a lot of determination and they’ve produced competitive cars for the last few years.”
“It’s a pleasure to welcome Sergio to the team,” said Mallya. “He brings a healthy mix of youth and experience, and I’ve been very impressed with his recent performances.
“By pairing Sergio alongside Nico, we enter the new season with an extremely competitive line-up, which will go toward helping us achieve our goals for the new season.”
Hülkenberg, too, was in high hopes of both his and Pérez’s signings with Force India: “What we must make sure now is that we do our homework and that we work really hard on our project, on our car, and that’s all we can do to be competitive next year.
“I’m confident we can have a good package though. How good? We’ll see next year. We have a Mercedes package which I think is a good benefit.”
– Charlen Raymond