I want three more years with Cadillac
Sergio Perez reckons that he has “maybe three more years” before he reaches his sell-by date in Formula 1, and wants to devote that to helping the Cadillac project move forward.
The Mexican found himself out of F1 at the end of 2024 when he was released by Red Bull, following a difficult campaign. This had its genesis in 2023; although Perez finished second in that season’s championship, his form had declined after the year started brightly. He dropped to eighth overall in 2024, scoring just four podium finishes.
After a year out, Perez earned a reprieve from the sidelines when Cadillac signed him to join its rookie team, partnering him with Valtteri Bottas to take advantage of an veteran line-up – and with recent experience of top-level teams to help drive its development.
Perez, speaking on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, says that he is relishing the project and feels like “more than a driver” as he helps to influence the direction of the team. He added that this is something that few drivers get to experience in their careers.
“I really feel like this is a project. And I really feel like I’m part of this project of this new era, like building something from scratch,” Perez said.
“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.
“And like you say, you know, I feel like here I’m much more than a driver. 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.”
Later, Perez spoke about his own long-term future. He explained that the key indicator of when to stop racing in F1 will come when his “will” starts to drop and when his focus on the team begins to become diluted.
He says that the Cadillac project motivates him sufficiently to maintain that focus on the job, feeling that he has potentially around three more years’ worth of racing left before he would leave to pursue other interests.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing, Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
“I think there’s a certain age where you start to drop,” he added. “I think it’s the engine inside you. It’s the will, and you see it from the outside, when you’re not in the car, how much you’re thinking on your engineers, on your car.
“When you go away and you start thinking less and less on that, that’s the first alarm, I would say. It’s going away. Because when you’re young, all what you’re thinking, it’s what’s coming next, how you will be driving better, what different techniques you can use, and that sort of thing.
“But as you get older and older – and some drivers are different. Some drivers, it happens at late 20s, mid-30s, mid-40s, and others – we might see Fernando until he’s 60! He’s still driving at a very high level. But I think Fernando is different.
“He has that engine inside him still. You can see him whenever there is an opportunity, like whenever there is anything he can take advantage of, he still has that.
“And you can see it. But everyone is different. I don’t think that there is a number, that there is an age. Although Formula 1 is very physical, very demanding, training is not a limitation like other sports, like within football or tennis. Here, I think, it’s more the brain or the vision.
“I think at the same time, it’s really hard for a driver to realise it’s enough, that I’m not as competitive as I wish or as I want to be and you need to call it off. And I think to take that decision as a driver is not so easy.
“But at the end, you need to be very honest with yourself and grateful, you know, to that kid that started everything and you need to be able to say, you know, it’s time to do something else.
“It’s hard to tell you a number. Obviously, I don’t have much in it. Say, maybe three years more. I want to see this project moving forward. I think that requires a bit more time.
“But yeah, I mean, I respect a lot what Fernando has done in the sport and the motivation he has. But for me, it wouldn’t be that long because I want to do other things out of Formula 1.”
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