Papa Perez, here we go again
After a year away from the headlines, Sergio Perez has returned to Formula 1, albeit in the challenging context of a debutant team like Cadillac. Along with the Mexican driver, the spotlight inevitably turns back to Antonio Perez Garibay, the cumbersome and loud father who has often made up for the shortcomings of Checo’s shy and reserved character. Now, also with renewed political ambitions of some significance.
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Thus, after sometimes supporting conspiracy theories that Max Verstappen had better quality material available compared to what was destined for his son during the period when the two shared the Red Bull garage, now the 66-year-old is back in the news but for reasons unrelated to Formula 1 and his son’s World Title ambitions. During an interview with some Mexican journalists, Antonio Perez admitted that his goal now is… the presidency of Mexico.
The goal: presidency
“You should never say never – he explains, quoted by the local newspaper El Siglo de Torreon – but this is my dream. My desire is to one day be the president of Mexico, just as my son dreamed of becoming a Formula 1 driver as a child. When I say I have this goal, people tell me I’m crazy. But, well, I like being a crazy person, I like doing things that many others don’t do or don’t even dare to do”.
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Antonio Perez Garibay: political career (and blunders)
However, it is not the first time that Papa Perez, known as Toño, has run for the presidency of his country: already in 2022, the Mexican politician had tried to exploit his son’s global fame to promote himself in the campaign for the 2024 elections, but then he failed to win the internal competition within his own party, the Movimiento Regeneración Nacional, better known as Morena, a left-wing populist formation, which already provided the president at the time, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and which is still leading the country with President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo.
Currently government delegate in the federal state of Jalisco (where his hometown, Guadalajara, is located) and in the past also a member of the Mexican Congress, Papa Perez has also made headlines for outlandish statements about his son Checo’s ambitions, for furious arguments with the sports press that follows Formula 1, and for homophobic remarks towards Ralf Schumacher.
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