Virgin eyeing pay-driver Perez for F1 seat?

(GMM) A young Mexican driver is knocking on the door of his formula one debut. 20-year-old GP2 driver Sergio Perez, with the backing of the telecommunications giant Telmex, was linked last winter with the available pay-drives at F1's new teams.

And according to the latest whispers, he may have now attracted the interest of the struggling Virgin team.

The currently Richard Branson-backed outfit is struggling for performance and reliability with a budget of less than $40 million, and Timo Glock is now being linked with a move for 2011.

The Sergio Perez rumors might be linked with the appearance in the Silverstone paddock on Saturday and Sunday of Carlos Slim.

Mexican Slim, one of the world's richest men, is the CEO and chairman of Telmex, which may be looking to graduate from GP2 to formula one.

It is also believed that Perez' push into formula one is supported by Jo Ramirez, the retired long time team coordinator at McLaren who was seen in the F1 paddock recently at Valencia.

Perez dominated the Silverstone GP2 sprint race, and he won the feature race at Monaco.