Pérez grew up in Guadalajara in a motorsport family — his older brother Antonio competed in the NASCAR Mexico Series. Pérez began karting at age six in 1996, winning several national championships and attracting the attention of Escuderia Telmex, the sponsorship programme that would support his international career. He moved to Europe in 2005 to race in Formula BMW, and in 2007 won the National Class of the British Formula 3 Championship with T-Sport, taking two-thirds of the races and all but two podiums. In 2009, he competed in the GP2 Series with Arden International before joining Barwa Addax for the 2009-10 GP2 Asia Series, winning five races and finishing runner-up to Pastor Maldonado in the championship standings.
Pérez made his Formula One debut at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix with Sauber, becoming the fifth Mexican driver in the sport's history. He joined as a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy. In 2012, he produced a series of performances that announced him as one of the grid's most promising talents. His maiden podium came at the Malaysian Grand Prix, where he closed to within 0.5 seconds of Fernando Alonso in the race's dying laps. He added further podiums in Canada and Italy, the latter result featuring a drive from twelfth on the grid into second place through effective tyre management — a quality that would define much of his career.
Pérez replaced Lewis Hamilton at McLaren for 2013 but had a difficult season, including public clashes with teammate Jenson Button, and was released at the year's end. He joined Force India in 2014, where he spent seven seasons and became the team's talisman. He scored podiums in Bahrain (2014), Monaco (2016), Azerbaijan (2016, 2018), Russia (2015), and Malaysia (2017), frequently extracting results far exceeding the team's resources through tyre conservation and strategic racing. When Force India was purchased by Lawrence Stroll's consortium mid-2018 and rebranded as Racing Point, Pérez remained as driver. In the disrupted 2020 season, he finished fourth overall and claimed his maiden Formula One victory at the Sakhir Grand Prix, recovering from last place at the end of the opening lap — hit by Charles Leclerc — to take the win on lap 64. It was the first Formula One victory by a Mexican driver since Pedro Rodríguez at the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix.
When Racing Point became Aston Martin for 2021 and Sebastian Vettel took his seat, Pérez signed for Red Bull to partner Max Verstappen. He won at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2021 after Verstappen suffered a tyre failure, and his defensive driving in the season finale at Abu Dhabi — holding Hamilton off to help Verstappen close a seven-second gap — was credited as a significant factor in Verstappen's championship victory.
In 2022, Pérez achieved his first pole position at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, on his 215th career start, breaking the existing record. He won in Monaco and Singapore that year and finished third in the championship with 305 points. His 2023 season was his strongest overall: victories in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, plus runner-up to Verstappen in the World Drivers' Championship with second place his final standing. He accumulated his wins methodically alongside Verstappen's dominant title defence.
Following a winless and inconsistent 2024 campaign, Pérez and Red Bull mutually agreed to terminate his contract. He had contributed to two World Constructors' Championship victories with the team.
Pérez returned to Formula One in 2026 with Cadillac for their debut season, alongside Valtteri Bottas.
Pérez is regarded as one of the finest strategic and tyre-managing drivers of his generation. His longevity in Formula One — fifteen seasons — placed him among the sport's most experienced competitors, and his career arc from mid-field specialist to genuine championship contender at Red Bull stands as one of the distinctive stories of the hybrid era. He remains the most successful Mexican driver in Formula One history.