Sergio Pérez says his strong performances with Cadillac in the 2026 Formula 1 season should not come as a surprise, insisting that the difficult final months of his Red Bull career never allowed him to show his true potential. Now competing alongside Valtteri Bottas in Cadillac’s new F1 project, the Mexican believes his current pace better reflects the level he has always been capable of producing.
The 2026 campaign has therefore provided Sergio Pérez with considerable personal satisfaction. His return to Formula 1 with Cadillac has created a clear contrast with the final phase of his time at Red Bull, when results and performance deteriorated significantly before his departure from the Milton Keynes team.
Sergio Pérez says Red Bull period did not show his true potential
Speaking to RacingNews365, the 36-year-old from Guadalajara explained that his final six months inside the Red Bull garage were shaped by a series of difficult external circumstances that prevented him from fully demonstrating his ability behind the wheel.
Sergio Pérez did not go into detail about every factor behind those difficulties, but his assessment was clear: he does not believe the performances seen during the closing stages of his Red Bull career represented his genuine level as a Formula 1 driver.
The comparison remains particularly significant because driving alongside Max Verstappen has proved a formidable challenge for a succession of Red Bull team-mates. The team’s current line-up has produced a different dynamic, with Isack Hadjar making encouraging progress alongside Max Verstappen during the 2026 season.
Pérez rejects surprise over his Cadillac performances
Sergio Pérez has taken particular pride in the work he is producing under Formula 1’s new technical regulations. He believes both his overall performance level and his qualifying pace have been extremely strong since joining Cadillac.
The Mexican has also rejected suggestions that his current results amount to unexpected overperformance. From his perspective, he was already driving at an excellent level before joining Cadillac, even if the circumstances surrounding his final months at Red Bull made that considerably harder to demonstrate.
That distinction is important to Sergio Pérez. Rather than viewing 2026 as a sudden return of lost speed, he sees his Cadillac performances as evidence of what he remained capable of throughout his difficult period at Red Bull.
Cadillac gives Sergio Pérez a fresh platform in F1
Cadillac paired Sergio Pérez with Valtteri Bottas for its first Formula 1 campaign, choosing two highly experienced Grand Prix winners to help establish and develop the new American team. Sergio Pérez had already played an important role in Cadillac’s preparations before the project reached the grid, including simulator and testing work ahead of the 2026 season. Ferrari also provided technical support during that preparatory phase, including opportunities that helped Sergio Pérez prepare for Cadillac’s Formula 1 debut.
His priority now is to maintain the momentum he has built during the first part of the campaign. Sergio Pérez wants to concentrate solely on his own performances, continue delivering the level of qualifying and race pace that has characterised his return, and use that experience to help drive Cadillac’s development forward.
For Sergio Pérez, the message is therefore less about proving that he has rediscovered his speed and more about demonstrating that it never disappeared. After a difficult conclusion to his Red Bull career, Cadillac has given him the opportunity to show that potential under very different circumstances.
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