He is an analytical racer with excellent tyre management. He is known for his ability to maximize tire performance and push hard in the latter half of a race.

He started karting in 1996 at the age of 6, and competed in various karting races in Mexico before starting his professional career in 2004. In 2008, he was promoted to the championship class. From 2008 to 2010, he competed in the GP2 Asia Series, the Asian version of GP2 (now the FIA Formula 2 Championship), and finished second in the series ranking with five wins in 2010.

In 2011, he began full participation in F1 with Sauber. In 2013 he moved to McLaren, where he drove for Racing Point (formerly Force India) from 2014 to 2020, finishing in the top 10 in every season since 2014. In 2020, he took his first win in the 16th round of the Sakhir GP and closed out the season with a personal best ranking of 4th.

In 2021, he moved to Red Bull Racing. He finished the season in 4th place in the ranking, tied for his best finish in 2020, with his first front row start in Round 2 and his second win in Round 6. In 2022, still with Red Bull Racing, the Mexican finished third in the championship, narrowly missing out on second. Winning in Monaco and Singapore, he contributed to the team winning the Constructors' Championship.

A true team player, devastatingly quick in his own right and strategically brilliant racer, Checo took two victories in 2023 to help Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT to take 21 of 22 wins for a new record win rate of 95.5%.