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 But not any more.
This time 'Checo' arrives in Texas knowing that Sunday, for all the
support he is sure to enjoy, is more like a warm-up for the
following weekend's big party -- the thrill of Mexico's first grand
prix since 1992.
That will be a first in more ways than one for the Force India
driver because the 25-year-old, Mexico's only current Formula One
driver, has no experience of motor racing at home on asphalt.
The man who leaped excitedly onto the podium in Russia two weeks
ago, when he finished third for his fifth career top three finish,
has only ever raced go-karts in Mexico.
"As a Mexican we didn't have much history in our sport. The last
Mexican in Formula One was 30 years ago. So basically to come all
the way to Formula One I had to leave home at the age of 14," he
told Reuters in an interview.
"I basically did my whole career in Europe, I raced just a couple of
years in karting in Mexico."
If racing in Mexico will be a highlight of his career so far, and
another podium cannot be ruled out even if points are more likely,
he is quick to qualify that by saying he hopes for greater things to
come.
"Don't get me wrong. I'm here to win championships and races," he
said. "It's not that I am very comfortable with what I have
achieved, but it's something very special for me as a racing driver
to race in my home country.
"No matter what result I get on Sunday, because on Sundays you never
know what can happen, it will be just a very special moment in my
career."
It is also not something Perez ever expected when he left home in
Guadalajara as a boy to move to Germany and follow his dream of
racing cars in Europe.
In those days, when talk of Mexico returning to the calendar sounded
fanciful, he was in no hurry to come back.
"I thought this is my last race in Mexico and I hope I never come
back to race in my country," he said. "I wanted to race out of
Mexico."
A toddler when Britain's Nigel Mansell won in 1992 at the Mexico
City circuit named after the country's greatest drivers, the late
brothers Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez, Perez said a return home to
race as a teenager would have signaled only failure.
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It would have been the end of a dream -- one that could have ended
equally abruptly in 2013 when he lost his seat at McLaren before
Force India threw him a lifeline.
He returns home regularly enough now, this month driving Pedro
Rodriguez's old BRM at the formal opening of a revamped high-speed
circuit that he expects to provide plenty of excitement.
"My target was always Formula One, although we had many drivers in
Indy Car, I wanted to make it big time," said Perez, who has
benefited from strong backing from an early age by Mexican telecoms
giant Telmex.
"I wanted to race against the best drivers in the world because I
feel I am one of them. So I wanted to prove myself against the best
(in Europe)."
What experience he did have of competing in Mexico, with his father
driving long distances to get his son to kart tracks as far away
from Guadalajara as Monterrey or Veracruz, was formative
nonetheless.
"It gave me a good step in my career because at the age of 10 or 11
I was racing against people of 20 or 25. It's something that in
other parts of the world I couldn't do," he said.
"So that really helped me in my career. I felt that those karting
days were very good for me.
"Every time we traveled, it was at the very least 10 hours ... and
after the race finished I slept in the van, I changed to my uniform
clothes for school and my Dad drove me straight to school.
"It was how I lived my young years."
(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
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