The Minardi Formula One team signed Pérez-Sala for the 1988 season, alongside compatriot Adrián Campos - the first time two Spanish drivers had raced together as team-mates in F1.[1] He made his debut for them on 3 April 1988, at the season's opening race in Brazil, where he qualified 20th but failed to finish the race when his rear wing collapsed. Over the next five rounds, he continually outpaced Campos, who was replaced by Pierluigi Martini (Pérez-Sala's F3000 team-mate in 1986)[2] from round six of the Championship in Detroit.
Martini and Pérez-Sala were teammates in both 1988 and 1989, with Martini outqualifying, outracing and outscoring Pérez-Sala. Pérez-Sala's only point came from a sixth place in the 1989 British Grand Prix. This was the first F1 points score by a Spanish driver in thirty years, and the first race in Minardi's history in which both of the team's cars finished in the points.[2] Along with the two points Martini scored for finishing fifth in the same race, the pair scored enough points to keep Minardi out of pre-qualifying for the rest of the season. At the end of the 1989 season, after failing to qualify for the season ending Australian Grand Prix (while Martini qualified a brilliant 3rd behind only the McLaren-Honda cars of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost), he left Formula One having started 26 of the 32 Grands Prix that he entered. After his retirement from Formula One, Pérez-Sala became a regular in the Spanish Touring Car Championship, winning the series in 1991 and 1993,[2] before moving into sportscar and endurance racing. He and team-mate Manel Cerqueda won the GTB class title in the Spanish GT Championship in 2003 and 2004, and finished second overall in the championship in 2008 - his last season in competition before retiring.[1]
In July 2011, he was recruited as a consultant for the Hispania F1 team, which was founded by former Minardi teammate Campos.[3] On 15 December 2011, it was announced that he would become team principal of HRT, replacing Colin Kolles.[4][5]