Sergio Perez and the deafening reaction to Xenophobic remarks by the F1 community

Sergio Perez has been a driver under pressure this season. The Mexican started his season impressively with two wins in four races. After the race in Baku, he did look like a possible championship contender as well. But since then, the season has taken a turn for the worse.

The driver has not won a single race since and has been completely dominated by his teammate. What's worse is the innocuous run in qualifying that saw him unable to make it to Q3 for multiple races. In all of this, there's one thing that has become transparent and that is the growing discontent of Helmut Marko.

The Austrian has not had the kindest of words for the Mexican driver for a while now. In one of the latest interviews, Marko said that Lando Norris could prove to be a great fit as the team looks at future options beyond Sergio Perez.

It was during this point that some questionable comments were made about Perez by the Red Bull chief advisor. What followed was a statement issuing an apology and uncomfortably deafening silence from the F1 fraternity.

In this feature, let's delve a bit deeper into why the whole incident has not painted the sport in a great light.

The remarks against Sergio Perez and the reaction to it

I won't go too deep into what was said but keeping it short, Helmut Marko had passed Xenophobic remarks about Sergio Perez when talking about his lack of consistency.

Marko has since then issued an apology about the same but there is a stark contrast to how this was received by the F1 fraternity.

A stark contrast to Juri Vips N-Word controversy

Especially if we compare this with what happened to Juri Vips, a young Red Bull junior who had said the 'N-word' during a live stream then this reaction seems nothing compared to that.

Vips were chucked out from the Red Bull academy, a statement was issued by the Austrian squad, a statement was issued by Hitech racing, Juri's F2 team, and a statement was issued by F1 as well.

This time around, a xenophobic remark was passed, and... crickets? Red Bull has kept quiet, Marko has declined to entertain a question on the topic while no other entity has issued a statement either.

F1's talk of inclusivity and Sergio Perez's marginalization

Does the talk of inclusivity that F1 prides itself over not include this? Helmut Marko's comments against Sergio Perez were just the Austrian doubling down on his somewhat dismissive criticism of the Mexican in the last few races. Even before the xenophobic comment surfaced, Marko had commented on Sergio's personal life.

We were one of the first publications to call out Red Bull's treatment of Sergio Perez. It's been appreciable to see The Race bring up the topic of how the team is treating the Mexican but the topic seems to be pushed under the rug already. Almost in a way proving how a statement issued by Helmut Marko is enough of an apology.

Doesn't all of this prove what Sergio Perez said in his documentary last season where he revealed that he did feel like an outsider in the paddock because he was a Mexican? That is a question to which Perez surely deserves an answer.

What needs to be done

The Mexican has been part of the sport for more than a decade now and he's accomplished whatever came his way through sheer hard work. An F1 driver who is the most accomplished in his country deserves better than a statement from Helmut Marko.

It deserves cognizance and it deserves acknowledgment from Red Bull and other key stakeholders in the sport. Last season, Nelson Piquet's racist remarks against Lewis Hamilton took the sport by storm just like it should have. What Helmut Marko has said was discriminatory and there is no argument on that front.

The least the sport can do is wrap its hands around the shoulder of a driver who has already once claimed that a non-European can feel like an outsider in the paddock. In the end, if we can't then there's no point in running campaigns named #weraceasone because words and actions just don't sync up.

No one is demanding Helmut Marko's job or his dismissal, the only thing that is needed is cognizance. It is a time when the sport needs to show Sergio Perez that he is not an outsider and he will not be discriminated against or targeted because he's a Mexican.

That's the least we can do!