(Motorsport-Total.com) – After a mentally very stressful departure from Red Bull, Sergio Perez returned to Formula 1 with Cadillac, driven by the desire to prove that he still belongs to the best drivers in the racing series. The Mexican driver made his comeback to the starting grid for the 2026 season with the brand-new American team.
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Previously, he took a much-needed one-year break to leave behind the last six months at the Milton Keynes racing team, described as “toxic.”
In the podcast High Performance, Perez explains: “When the project with Cadillac came, I thought: ‘This is a huge project; this is a huge brand.’ And when I met Dan [Towriss], I knew this guy is extremely ambitious and will do everything necessary to bring it to a very good level.”
Red Bull vs. Cadillac
“It can also be my project. I can be a part of it and prove to myself that I am one of the best, and I want to do that because I always believe that I am one of the best on the starting grid.”
“But of course, your time at Red Bull takes away that confidence when you don’t perform and your teammate wins. And I always knew what the problems were, but it just robs you of confidence. That’s why I wanted to come back.”
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Now that he is helping to build the Cadillac project from the ground up, Perez is fully aware of the challenges the team faces. Although the racing team still needs to gel, he looks very confidently towards the long-term path.
The long road in Formula 1
“Of course, we are still at the very beginning,” he admits at the time of the podcast recording. “We are only racing our sixth race and a kind of culture is just building up. But I can see that the owners will not stop until they have succeeded.”
“We are talking about General Motors and TWG here,” says Perez. “These are two big forces that will not stop until they reach their goal.” After nine races, neither Perez nor his teammate Valtteri Bottas have scored points in the 2026 Formula 1 season so far. The Mexican has not gone beyond 14th place, while the Finn achieved the best result for Cadillac so far with 13th place in China.
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