Perez: I came to McLaren at the wrong time

Force India driver Sergio Perez has hit back at claims he was “totally unprofessional” and “a slob” and also laments the fact that he arrived at McLaren at the wrong time in the great team’s history.

Perez made his F1 debut in 2011 for Sauber, and was then signed up by McLaren in 2013, “I came to McLaren at the wrong time, which was really a shame as they have a great history.”

But the Woking team is having even tougher times now, having switched to works Honda power for 2015.

“If you look at where they are now, it will take several years before they are right at the front again,” Perez, who currently drives for Force India, predicted.

A month ago, the Mexican’s former Formula BMW chief Peter Mucke, who also worked with Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica and many others, looked back on Perez’s days as a teenager.

“His apartment in Berlin looked like a battlefield. He wrecked my rental car when he came home drunk from a party. He did everything you cannot do,” Mucke had said.

But Mucke claimed Perez could afford to take that attitude, given his strong financial backing by Carlos Slim and Telmex.

“He never would have reached the top if not for that money. With his talent alone, he would have been out after that one year in BMW,” he told Spox.

Speaking ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, however, 25-year-old Perez has belatedly said Mucke’s comments had left him “really surprised”.

“I mean, I was 15 years old then and not even driving on the road or drinking,” he told Laola1.

Explaining Mucke’s comments, Perez added: “I think he just wanted to be in the media, so that people talk about him.

“He did nothing for me and didn’t even speak a word of English, so I couldn’t even talk to him. Other team bosses in formula 3 or GP2 had a much greater impact on my career.”