What Sergio Perez can offer Cadillac in F1 return revealed by former boss

Sergio Perez still has plenty to offer Formula 1 in the right environment, believes his former team boss Otmar Szafnauer.

Perez is understood to be returning to Formula 1 in 2026, having reached an agreement with Cadillac to join Graeme Lowdon’s team for its first year in the sport.

Otmar Szafnauer: Sergio Perez ‘a good addition’ for a new team

Multiple sources have indicated to PlanetF1.com that the Mexican driver is set to join Cadillac, having agreed terms with the American squad, but is yet to formally sign a contract.

It’s expected that his confirmation at Cadillac will come during the week of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Perez is likely to be paired with fellow F1 veteran Valtteri Bottas, with the pair boasting over 500 grands prix experience as a duo and offering Cadillac a highly experienced partnership with a proven track record.

Perez, who finished as runner-up in the Drivers’ Championship in 2023, has been without a drive since Red Bull opted to part ways with him at the end of last year.

It had been a very difficult season for Perez, whose form took a nosedive relative to World Champion team-mate Max Verstappen, with Perez’s inability to consistently score points directly contributing to Red Bull’s defeat in the Constructors’ Championship.

But Perez has been greatly vindicated this year as the ongoing struggles of his replacements — first Liam Lawson and then the experienced Yuki Tsunoda — have shown that Red Bull’s issues with performance are not primarily down to the drivers.

Perez’s experience in the midfield, as well as having recent first-hand knowledge of a World Championship-winning team make him an ideal signing for Cadillac, where – if it’s confirmed – he will reunite with the small-team ethos in which he thrived during the 2010s.

Perez spent seven years driving for Force India/Racing Point under Otmar Szafnauer, the team’s chief operations officer, and, according to the American businessman, Cadillac could do far worse than sign Perez.

“If he finds the right environment, with all of his experience at both smaller teams with less budget and Red Bull, he’s got good feedback, so he definitely has something to offer,” Szafnauer said in an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com.

“Especially perhaps, a new team coming in that needs an experienced driver for the first couple of years, Checo [Perez] would be a good addition.”

During his time working with Szafnauer, Perez was no stranger to the podium and never finished outside the top 10 in the Drivers’ Championship.

Indeed, it was Perez who directly contributed to the team being saved when, in dire financial straits under former team owner Vijay Mallya, Perez initiated proceedings to force the team into the administration process that resulted in Lawrence Stroll’s Racing Point consortium purchasing the squad.

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Perez moved on to join Red Bull in 2021 after losing his seat with Racing Point two years later and, in his final year with the Milton Keynes-based squad, appeared to have a crisis of confidence.

While Verstappen was still fighting for wins and podiums en route to another title, Perez never returned to the podium after scoring four top-three finishes in the first five rounds.

Indeed, he only scored a single 10th-place finish across the last five races, contributing to Red Bull’s shareholders all reaching an agreement that it was time to part ways with Perez, and Szafnauer offered his opinion on how he saw his former driver’s career threatening to stutter out in such ignominious fashion.

“I was surprised,” he said.

“When I worked with Checo, I remember him saying to me: ‘I’m going to beat [Nico] Hulkenberg.’

“I thought that’d be great if you could actually achieve that, because Hulkenberg was a great driver then, and now, and very fast over a lap.

“It took Sergio two years, but he ended up beating Hulkenberg [seventh and ninth, respectively, in 2016].”

“It was very close. That really impressed me about Sergio and he did that through his own hard work, focus, and mental tenacity at the time.

“So I knew he was capable of that. I was a bit surprised that he didn’t have that type of finish at Red Bull.”

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