Sergio Perez is relishing building Cadillac’s Formula 1 project “from scratch” as he describes the ‘unique’ privilege.
After years of slogging in the midfield, Perez finally got his big chance when he was called up to drive for Red Bull at the start of the 2021 season.
His valiant performances, especially at Istanbul, helped Max Verstappen to his maiden F1 title and earned him the moniker ‘The Minister of Defence’.
But things went south for him at the Milton-Keynes-based team from his sophomore year onwards.
It all crescendoed in 2024, when the Mexican racing driver was ousted from the team, having finished a whopping 285 points adrift of the Dutchman.
An enforced year on the sidelines later, Cadillac signed him up to lead them in their debut F1 season.
“I really feel like this is a project,” he said on the Beyond the Grid podcast.
“And I really feel like I’m part of this project of this new era, like building something from scratch.
“Of course, I want to win championships and be fighting at the front. But if you don’t have that opportunity, I think Cadillac, it’s something that motivates me a lot.
“It’s like building a team from scratch and starting basically from last to see how far we can go together.”
Sergio Perez reveals unique Cadillac F1 privilege
12 rounds into 2026, the General-Motors-backed project is yet to score its first F1 championship points.
But that doesn’t kill the unique privilege Perez has gotten to experience with the team.
At Red Bull, Perez was quite vocal about how he had struggled to mend the inherent deficiencies in the ground-effects philosophy of the team’s car.
In fairness, the team were set in its ways, and Verstappen was pooling in the results for the championship.
But with the Silverstone-based outfit, he feels he has much more control over the overall philosophy of the team and the car.
For the first time in his career ever, he feels he is “much more than a driver”.
“And like you say, you know, I feel like here I’m much more than a driver,” Perez explained.
“At the same time, they listen a lot to me on different things, on development and stuff. Only a few drivers can get that in their careers, and it’s the first time I can have this.”
Despite the positive outlook, Perez has a tough second half of the season cut out for him, with Cadillac now also having fallen behind the likes of Aston Martin.
READ MORE – Cadillac issues firm stance on Sergio Perez F1 future amid Williams rumours
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