Sergio Perez predicts when Silverstone’s Cadillac F1 Team will experience ‘massive boost’ in performance
Veteran driver Sergio Perez is hugely disappointed that the Silverstone-based Cadillac Formula 1 Team are still yet to score a single point after 12 rounds of the 2026 season, though there may yet be light at the end of the tunnel.
Teething problems and performance struggles were always expected for F1’s newbies, however Perez was hoping for better progress by this midway stage of the campaign.
For much of the season so far, Cadillac have been fighting with backmarkers and fellow Silverstone team Aston Martin – but even they have come on leaps and bounds recently.
Cadillac have been left stranded at the foot of the standings with a whopping 10 retirements in total between Perez and teammate Valtteri Bottas.
The Hungarian Grand Prix on July 26, when Aston took their big step forward, saw Cadillac suffer a double DNF. Then, at Zandvoort on August 23, Bottas retired with 10 laps to go.
“I think the last few races have been a disappointment,” Perez told the Beyond The Grid podcast.
“There's a lot of disappointment because we haven't been developing and we haven't been improving. Us being a new team, is what we should be doing, like every time.
“I felt like there was a bit of stalling in the last few races and that's why we had to review how we were doing everything.
“But the most important thing is we understand and we look at our processes, why it hasn't come, why we haven't improved in all those different areas.”
Earlier this month, Cadillac announced that team principal Graeme Lowdon was being replaced by former Ferrari, McLaren and Alpine man Marcin Budowski.
Although huge changes to performance are unlikely, Perez is hopeful Cadillac can find a breakthrough that can help them compete further up the field.
Perez added: “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. I feel like for us being a new team, it's in there. It's possible.
“Obviously, I'm looking forward to working with Marcin, seeing his leadership and I think there's a lot of room for improvement, not just on performance, you know, operationally, pit stops, strategy, tyres, there's so much still.
“It's only our 10th, 11th race in our history. So there are a lot of things. I want to see much more progress closing up the gap and I think that will give us a massive boost to start next year.”