Cadillac Signing Sergio Perez Would Be Admitting Defeat Before They Even Start

The Formula One grid bristles with anticipation of Cadillac joining as the 11th constructor for the 2026 season, and the team’s choice of drivers is a topic of contention right now as the so-called silly season begins anew. It makes a lot of sense for Cadillac to get its driver picks in early so they can get up to speed with the team from day one, and the longer it waits to sign drivers, the fewer choices will be on the table. It seems, however, that Cadillac is looking to order off-menu, to grab Sergio Perez, a driver other teams have had many opportunities to sign and every one of them passed. 

Perez has plenty of F1 experience, so I can sort of see the appeal, but the 2026 regulations will be new for everyone and any competent open-wheeler should be able to come to grips with a new car in a session or two. The 35-year-old Mexican driver had a whopping fourteen seasons in F1 to impress and never really managed to do so. Across the 2024 season Checo could manage no better than eighth in the driver’s championship while his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen won the championship and rarely finished off the podium in the same car. If Perez had raced better, perhaps Red Bull could have beat McLaren to the constructors’ championship, too. Hiring Perez to drive costs a lot more than his salary.

“He is an option,” Cadillac advisor Mario Andretti confirmed to ESPN‘s racing podcast. “He could be an option. Of course, he could be an option. All I can say is that Liam Lawson is making Checo look very, very good.”

With all due respect to the only living American F1 champion, Liam Lawson’s three-weekend career in the Red Bull is not a good yardstick against which to measure Checo, and is damning with faint praise at best. There are easily a dozen potentially available drivers I would choose to drive for Cadillac over Sergio. I don’t really envy team boss Graeme Lowdon’s position here, having to pick which drivers will suit the team best, but he’d be an absolute fool to not at least test IndyCar standouts Colton Herta, Pato O’ward, and Alex Palou. 

The future of F1 is not found in its past. Choosing a driver with four seasons in arguably the best F1 car ever built, and only six wins to show for it, that’s a fool’s errand. In my opinion, if Cadillac signs Sergio Perez as one of its drivers, it just shows the team isn’t serious about winning.