Sergio Perez will not attend a fan forum at his home Grand Prix due to illness, becoming the third driver to fall ill so far this week.
The Mexico Grand Prix is set to mark the Cadillac driver’s 300th Formula 1 Grand Prix start. It’s expected that he will participate in all of the weekend’s driving sessions as planned, including both free practice sessions on Friday, despite his illness.
A statement from the team 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.”
F1 Mexico GP blighted by illness as three drivers pull out of media duties
Perez is not the only driver to have been ruled out of media duties so far at the Mexico Grand Prix. His teammate Valtteri Bottas has also been affected by illness and was forced to miss media day on Thursday, alongside Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.
Cadillac’s statement confirmed Bottas “will fulfill all media duties and take part in Free Practice 2 today as planned”. The team’s test driver, Colton Herta, will take Bottas’s place in FP1 as part of the sport’s commitment to allow rookie drivers to participate in F1 practice sessions.
Antonelli has also been cleared to take part in Friday’s sessions.
When asked about drivers falling ill across the weekend, Max Verstappen blamed the issue on the demanding Formula 1 schedule.
“It is, of course, always quite tough on your body, like three weeks in a row. Sometimes you can get a little bit unlucky with whatever, a stomach bug,” he said on Thursday.
“But it’s normally around this time of the year that not only drivers, but mechanics and people in the team get sick. Because your body can take a lot of stress. But at one point, of course, it also tells you when it needs a little recovery phase.”
He continued: “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.”
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