Sergio Perez says Cadillac’s recent development stall has made the past few Formula 1 races “a disappointment”, but believes the team can still find another second of performance in 2026.
Cadillac made significant progress during the opening part of the season, pulling clear of struggling Aston Martin and regularly beating the Silverstone-based team to avoid the back of the grid and the wooden spoon.
That progress has slowed in recent races. Aston Martin’s own upgrades, including aerodynamic developments introduced in Hungary and the Netherlands, combined with Honda’s efforts to improve power, have delivered a notable increase in lap time and left Cadillac behind.
Perez believes Cadillac has more potential. Speaking on Formula 1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, he said a new team should be improving constantly, but acknowledged that Cadillac’s recent form had flatlined.
“On everything, I think the last few races have been a disappointment. There’s a lot of disappointment because we haven’t been developing. We haven’t been improving,” Perez said.
“Us being a new team, this is what we should be doing, like every time. So I felt like there was a bit of a stalling in the last few races.
“And that’s why we had to review on things, how we were doing everything. Obviously, being a new team, there’s a lot of things that we are constantly learning.”
Perez measured Cadillac’s shortfall in lap-time terms, suggesting the team has found roughly one second of performance during the opening half of the year, rather than the two seconds it had expected.
Even so, he believes Cadillac is “not that far” from the established teams. Finding another second could transform the team’s competitiveness and allow it to put pressure on Williams, Haas and Aston Martin.
“I don’t think we have improved as much as we hoped for,” Perez added. “[We have found] I don’t know, a second? But probably we were looking for two seconds.
“The most important is we understand and we look at our processes, why it hasn’t come, that second? Why we haven’t improved in all those different areas?
“Because it’s not only one thing, being a new team, there’s a lot of things that are in there. And I can see them, you know. If we improve our load, our ride, a lot of things, all of a sudden, we are not that far.
“We are at the back, but half a second, one second will change our life completely at this stage, you know? And I feel like for us being a new team, it’s in there. It’s possible.”
