Sergio Perez sets lofty target for Cadillac ahead of F1 comeback

Sergio Perez has predicted Cadillac will secure a first podium “in the near future”, after all, he’s been in the top three with every team he has raced for bar McLaren.

Perez is set to return to the Formula 1 grid next season after a year out of the sport following his departure from Red Bull in the off-season after a woeful 2024 campaign.

Sergio Perez bullish about podium dream with Cadillac

⦁ Cadillac will be on the podium ‘in the near future’
⦁ Former Ferrari junior to test a Ferrari at Imola
⦁ Could Cadillac beat Haas in the race for a first F1 podium

The Mexican driver will return alongside Valtteri Bottas, who also spent F1 2025 on the sidelines, in an experienced line-up of 527 race starts and 16 grand prix wins.

Having earlier this year passed the FIA’s chassis homologation tests with its prototype chassis, Cadillac’s preparations for its debut campaign meant the team recently began work on its first race chassis.

“The good news is it [the car] is coming along,” team principal Graeme Lowdon told Formula 1. “It’s on schedule. We are currently laying up the first two race chassis.”

Perez has seen the progress up close at the team’s Silverstone-based factory, following a visit to the outfit’s Charlotte base.

He spent time in the General Motors simulator and later this week will put in his first laps in a Formula 1 car since last year’s season finale in Abu Dhabi with Red Bull. The six-time grand prix winner will drive a black Ferrari SF-23 during a two-day outing at the Imola circuit.

But while Perez concedes Cadillac may have a difficult time of things when it first arrives in the sport next year, he reckons it’s only a matter of time before the team is standing on the podium.

After all, history says he’s a podium finisher as he’s bagged top-three results with all the teams he’s raced for – Sauber, Force India/Racing Point and Red Bull – excluding McLaren.

“Yes, I think so. I really believe it,” he told Reuters of the podium dream. “I think I’ve been on the podium with all the teams I drove for, except McLaren.

“I think we’re going to start at the back, progressively move forward. But ultimately, in the near future, that (the podium) is a target.

“It doesn’t matter who gets there, as long as it’s Cadillac.”

“Normally the new teams that have come in the past, they’ve always been struggling financially,” he added, “and this is a team that is coming for real and it’s coming to do things in the best way and to win.

“Cadillac are here for big things and it doesn’t really matter for me where we start, it’s how quickly we are able to develop and how quickly we are able to move forward. How the team is working weekend after weekend.”

Looking ahead to Thursday’s run in the Ferrari, Perez says it’s not only about working on his fitness ahead of his comeback, but also gelling with the Cadillac mechanics and engineers.

“I’m curious, you know, to find out how many laps my neck will do before it gets destroyed,” he said.

“But it’s great, you know. It’s a great test and a great way to finish the year before getting back in the car next year.

“It’s basically just a time for us to be able to get together with the engineers, mechanics, start working all together, you know, start talking the same language.”

More on Cadillac from PlanetF1.com

👉 The figures behind Cadillac’s big spending spree as F1 debut nears

👉 Cadillac announces latest senior hire ahead of F1 2026 entry

Does Cadillac have a winning formula for Formula 1?

Cadillac will be the first new Formula 1 team in a decade when it joins the grid next year, following on from fellow American outfit, Haas. Both teams’ roots are in American racing royalty, with Cadillac the birth child of Michael Andretti while Haas is part of Gene Haas’ motor racing empire.

But while Haas has yet to secure a debut podium in its 10 seasons on the grid, Oliver Bearman matching Romain Grosjean’s team-best result of P4 at the Mexican Grand Prix, Cadillac wants top-threes in the “near future”.

Could Formula 1’s newest American team achieve that goal before Haas?

Although Cadillac started as Andretti’s dream, General Motors joined the project in 2023 with its Cadillac brand, bringing a racing pedigree that is matched by few with its brands winning prestigious races around the world.

Cadillac has invested heavily in talent from Graeme Lowdon as team principal, Nick Chester as technical director and Rob White, who is the chief operations officer. Pat Symonds has also been brought in as the executive engineering consultant.

Throw in Perez and his teammate Valtteri Bottas, and it’s an impressive list of talent.

The team is arriving on the grid at the very beginning of a brand new era, with new smaller, lighter cars that incorporate active aerodynamics, and there’s a new engine formula too.

It means Cadillac theoretically starts on the same playing field as its 10 rivals, with experienced team personnel and new cars.

Theory and reality, though, don’t always add up.

Read next: Toto Wolff set to sell Mercedes ownership slice in $100 million deal