Sebastian Perez will make his British Rally Championship debut aboard a Ford Fiesta Rally2 in 2021 after opting to make the full time switch from circuit racing to rallying.
Having previously competed in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, the 21 year old felt he had done his time in British national championships but the current pandemic restrictions on travel have narrowed his options.
His Father, Steve Perez is a two-time BTRDA champion so he is no stranger to the the muddier side of motorsport, having also started out in the Junior 1000 series, but was honest in saying the BRC was not at the forefront of his mind for this year, when speaking to the BRC’s official website.
He said, “The British Rally Championship was not really something I was thinking about at the end of last year I`ll be totally honest. I was trying to continue within my circuit racing career this year but with the challenges of COVID and travel, it’s become very difficult to go abroad at the moment. Coupled with the fact that my European race aspirations for this season didn’t quite go to plan, we had to look elsewhere.”
Perez won’t neglect circuit racing entirely, competing in various historic championships throughout the year. The idea to enter the BRC came about after the championship came up in conversation. “We were sat there one evening and the topic of the BRC came up,” he said.
“I gave it a lot more thought and decided that it could be a great challenge. I have always seen British Rally Championship as a fantastic series and seriously competitive. It’s actually something I’ve thought about doing for a few years but never really had the chance.”
Having competed in various TOCA support championships beside the British Touring Car Championship, the Rally2 Fiesta won’t be completely alien to him as he has competed in previous events with the M-Sport machine. “I was lucky enough to drive the Fiesta Rally2 when it was first released and managed to do the Grizedale Stages in it in 2019 and it was certainly a great car to drive. Nevertheless, it will be a huge learning curve and there will be a lot to take from it for sure,”
“I think Oulton Park will be quite beneficial for me [as the first round] as I know the layout pretty well from my circuit experience and some single venue events there so it will just be a case of combining that all together. From Nicky Grist onwards it will be a little unknown but I`m feeling pretty optimistic about the season ahead”
