The Red 𓆏Bull driver’s recent performances have come under scrutiny which will only intensify now Daniel Ricciardo has returned to F1 with AlphaTauri♚.

Ric꧃ciardo had exclusively told Crash that he would accept an Alph💦aTauri drive if it gave him a chance at joining Red Bull.

But supp𒉰orting Perez’s career is a fellow Mexican, the billionaire Car𒅌los Slim.

Slim, aged 83, is☂ worth $102.4 billion - and is the eighth-richest person in the world.

He is Mexico’s richest man, and made his wealth by owniꦬng Latin America’s biggest telecoms com✅pany.

He taught🧸 algebra💎 at a university in Mexico City before making his billions.

Perez t✤old about how he convinced Slim to fund his F1 dream: "I was very lucky. I had known Carlos Slim, the man himself, since I was a little boy, thanks to my dad and his work for [former Mexican 🀅racer] Adrian Fernandez.

"Carlos was also the guy behind Escuderia Telmex, so he had always been very important to me. But getting him to send me to Europe was a different story. He hadn't gotten rich by throwing away his money, and he had absolutely no plans to send a 14-year-old kid to another part of the world. I didn’t really like to ask him about iꦡt either, but I just wanted it so badly. So I kept going to him like, 'Oh, please, pleeeeease could you help me get to Europe?'

“Every time he would say the same things. 'Son, it's too early. We don't🐷 need to go to Europe. The U.S. is great. Let's wait a bit.' Blah, blah, blah. Every time I would disagree. When I got the offer from Günther [Unterreitmeier, his prospective team boss in Fo🎐rmula BMW], I called Carlos again.

"Did he listen to me? Naaaah. Not really. Hahaha. The only reason he gave in, I think, was that he saw a kid who just wanted it so much. I was des🐎perate. I was willing to do anything. 

“In the end he probably got so tired of me that he actually saw the value in sending me off ▨to a different continent. My family was ecstatic. Soon we were driving down to Toluca with a one-way ticket to Munich."

From there, Perez made it to F1. 💦He ma𝓰y be under the cosh today, but he has come so far - thanks, in part, to Carlos Slim.