Sergio Perez pulls out of fan event after becoming third F1 driver to fall ill at Mexico GP
Cadillac has confirmed that Sergio Perez will miss his Friday media duties ahead of Practice at his home Grand Prix.
Ahead of the opening practice session for the Mexico Grand Prix, home hero Sergio Perez has been unable to attend a Fan Forum event due to illness.
The Mexican driver will celebrate his 300th Grand Prix start this weekend, but has not started the weekend in an ideal way.
It is expected that Perez will still participate in Free Practice 1 and 2 on Friday at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
A statement from Cadillac regarding Perez’s illness reads: “Checo Pérez will unfortunately be unable to attend today’s Fan Forum at his home Grand Prix due to illness. Both he and the team apologize to all the fans who have come out to see him.
“Checo and the team has taken the decision to allow him additional time to rest and recover this morning, ahead of today’s on-track sessions.
“His participation in the remainder of the race weekend, including FP1 and FP2, is not affected.
“Teammate Valtteri Bottas will fulfill all media duties and take part in Free Practice 2 today as planned.
“We thank our fans for their understanding and support and look forward to seeing you on track.”
Perez is not the first driver to be ruled out of media duties ahead of the Mexico Grand Prix, as earlier in the week it was announced that Kimi Antonelli and Valtteri Bottas would both miss their media duties on Thursday.
But both Antonelli and Bottas are also expected to participate in Practice at the Mexico Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen mentioned the issue regarding drivers falling ill and missing media duties on Thursday, as he explained that he believes the heavy demands of the 2026 F1 calendar are the reason behind it.
Verstappen said, "For me, the toughest bit is that you can't really go home in between to be back with the family. That, for me, is nowadays something that I do not really enjoy about triple-headers.”
