Red Bull‘s Sergio Perez said his use of the Wolf of Wall Street meme was to ensure travelling fans to the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix weren’t given false expectations.
Perez posted the iconic “I’m not f****ing leaving” meme from the Martin Scorcese Wolf of Wall Street movie to his X account last month.
The cheeky social media post was in response to rumours linking Perez to a retirement announcement at the Mexico City GP.
One week before Perez heads to his home race, the Mexican driver explained to select media including Motorsport Week at the United States GP why he chose to make the post.
“Well, I just felt like it’s been every year for the last two years or so that someone creates this rumour, and then everyone picks it up, and then all my fans,” he said.
“Obviously, I’m very conscious that there are a lot of people coming to support me at the Mexican Grand Prix, and they probably might be expecting something that is not true, and I felt the need to just say, ‘look, I think it’s just not correct to spread just rumours like this without knowing the facts.'”
Sergio Perez wants to ‘enjoy’ intense home GP
The passionate fans in Mexico are predominantly there to see home hero Perez, who explained that the race feels like “three races at once” due to its intensity.
“I just want to enjoy it,” Perex exclaimed.
“This is my ninth Grand Prix in Mexico, so I just want to make sure that I enjoy every single bit of it, because it’s a very important one.”
The present race at hand at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, is the first of six rounds to close out the 2024 F1 season.
Conjecture points towards this final quarter of the F1 campaign representing a shootout for the second seat at Red Bull between Perez and the RB duo of Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson.
Perez isn’t thinking in such terms, and ahead of the action unfolding in Austin, was more concerned with Red Bull’s new upgrade package.
“It’s not something that I really think about,” he said.
“I think we are fully focused as a team on the upgrade package, on bringing our season back on track.
“I know that if the car is competitive, if we fix the issue, we’ll be back to being competitive.
“We know what the issue has been for a long period of time, so I’m more concerned about that than reading the news or getting any headlines.”
Friday’s Sprint Qualifying showed that Red Bull was competitive, with Max Verstappen setting the fastest time.
Sadly for Perez, he was bumped to 11th, with Tusnoda progressing to the top-10 SQ3 shootout at the Mexican’s expense.
READ MORE: Helmut Marko reveals no guarantees over Sergio Perez’s Red Bull F1 future
