Interesting 'what might have been', back In 2012 Perez is sure he had the option to race for Ferrari in 2014 when he opted to drive for McLaren instead:
Instead he decided to join McLaren for 2013, but lasted just one season at the team before being dropped. “I think probably given how McLaren was at that time that ride came just at the wrong moment for me,” said Perez. “Because if you go back to 2012 I was a Ferrari member, I was going to get a contract for 2014, I had to say one more year with Sauber and then get the ride with Ferrari.”
“I went to Maranello and discussed with Domenicali, he told me ‘let’s do a pre-contract for 2014’,” he explained.
Perez said he had approaches from several top teams during 2012. “At that time Mercedes was interested, Ferrari was and McLaren so I was in a really strong position back then. And I thought to myself ‘I need to get into a competitive car because I can win the title’.
“The opportunity with McLaren came and McLaren was winning races, was fighting for titles for the last five years, so how can you say no? It was quite an obvious thing.”
https://www.racefans...tract-for-2014/
Also interesting is how he sees going to McLaren as a mistake although I think this is one of those cases where really it would be impossible to predict in advance.