Last year, Sergio Perez left Formula 1 following a disappointing season with Red Bull, which ended with his dismissal despite a recent contract renewal. After a sabbatical year, he is ready to return to the track for a new adventure with the debuting Cadillac team. Numerous challenges await the American outfit, which has chosen to rely on him and Valtteri Bottas, banking on their decade-long experience in the F1 Circus. Sergio Perez comes back fully recharged after his forced break, during which he re-evaluated several aspects of a driver’s life, including enjoying the sport day by day. A “driver in love with F1 again,” Sergio Perez is now focused on this “final project in the sport” and aims to ensure a successful comeback. His expectations are high: “I believe we will be able to surprise many. That is our goal, to make a strong impact in Formula 1 from day one.”
A difficult farewell to Formula 1
Sergio Perez is now ready for his second life in Formula 1, having left last year to make way for Liam Lawson in the Red Bull seat. His relationship with Milton Keynes was a love-hate story, ending on a sour note. While he reached the peak of his career with the team—culminating in his career-best finish and second place in the 2023 Drivers’ Championship—2024 saw a drastic drop in performance and results. This led Red Bull’s management to terminate his contract two seasons early, despite the recent renewal. His final F1 season did not yield the results he had hoped for, and the pressure of competing alongside Max Verstappen made the year particularly challenging, preventing him from leaving the sport on a high note.
However, after the initial disorientation, the Mexican driver found the balance he had been missing: “I didn’t realize it at the time, but I needed a break,” Sergio Perez explains. “When you’re in this sport, you’re always thinking about the next year, the next race, the next contract. It’s like being on autopilot. But when you are forced to step away, as I was, you realize many things and see the sport differently.” Now preparing to return as Cadillac’s full-time driver, the situation is entirely different: “I feel like I’ve fallen in love with F1 again. My last six months at Red Bull were very difficult in every aspect. I started to feel a bit demotivated about this sport, and I cannot allow that because it has given me everything.”
“The day I leave this sport, I want to do it with a big smile and full respect, because this sport has given me everything.” Sergio Perez’s F1 career could not end on the negative note of Red Bull. After closing that chapter, new horizons opened up for a full-time 2026 seat: “The first two months have been fantastic. I realized I missed F1 because I kept following it. I kept waking up to watch the races. I spoke with friends in the paddock and realized I had probably missed more than I thought. Then, when the conversation with Cadillac began and I saw their passion for racing, I felt I still had something left inside me.”
The new adventure with Cadillac
For its Formula 1 debut in 2026, Cadillac has chosen experienced drivers like Bottas and Perez, who already understand the inner workings of the sport. The Mexican is now returning to the F1 Circus more motivated than ever: “It’s an amazing feeling. Looking back, it was like a dream to take a year off and recharge. After about 15 years in F1, I needed to refresh and regain all the energy for what I consider my last experience in this sport… now I have all the energy to race again, to work with the team, to push them forward in every area, including the simulator. This is a new team, so we are starting practically from zero.”
The sabbatical taught Sergio Perez an important lesson often taken for granted: “When you’re in the F1 bubble, as a driver you worry about many factors. You’re not always satisfied because you haven’t spent the extra time you could have, and you forget that the main thing is to enjoy the sport. At the end of the day, we are privileged to do what we love. For me, this was the biggest lesson: you have to enjoy the sport because we are so competitive and focused on giving our best that you forget to enjoy it.”
As a new team in Formula 1, Cadillac has a lot to learn and work on to match the long-established competitors. Numerous challenges also come from the new technical regulations. For this reason, the American team has relied on experienced drivers to strengthen its existing personnel. “One thing is to prepare everything for Melbourne, but another is to make the car competitive, and that’s what we’re all working on. Having this much experience around us helps a lot. You see many familiar faces, people in the paddock for much longer than me, a lot of experience and willingness to test themselves in this sport.”
The agreement binding Sergio Perez to Cadillac was reached this summer, and since then the Mexican has actively worked to bring all his know-how to the team through meetings and simulator sessions, which are still ongoing. Recently, he even got back into a Formula 1 car for some testing, driving the 2023 Ferrari. “It was great to work with the team. I insisted on specific aspects, giving guidance. It’s fantastic to have a team you feel you can influence and ask for certain things. For me, it doesn’t matter where we start. What matters most is how quickly we can progress. I want to push the team forward from day one. I believe we can surprise many. That is our goal: to have a strong impact in Formula 1 from the very first day.”
Sergio Perez also has an extra motivation for the upcoming F1 season: “I consider this my main, big, final project in this sport, and I want to ensure I make a successful comeback.”
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