Sergio Perez says the struggles of his Purple Bull replacements present that he has nothing to show on his Method 1 return with Cadillac.
On Tuesday, Perez and fellow F1 veteran and a number of race winner Valtteri Bottas have been introduced because the expertise pair that may lead Cadillac’s cost in 2026 as F1’s eleventh staff. The information means the 35-year-old Mexican will return to the grid after an enforced one-year break.
On the finish of 2024, simply half a 12 months after incomes a contract extension, Perez’s continued struggles with Purple Bull’s tough 2024 automotive led to the staff paying off his contract, as a substitute selling first Liam Lawson after which Yuki Tsunoda to the troublesome seat subsequent to Max Verstappen.
Coming again into the sequence in a brand-new atmosphere, six-time grand prix winner Perez says he can have “nothing to show” after his character-building Purple Bull departure given the powerful circumstances which have plagued his successors within the seat much more.
“I really feel like there’s nothing to show. Not simply due to the present drivers or the subsequent drivers that have been in my seat however even earlier than that,” he mentioned. “Now everybody forgets about it, but it surely’s been a really tough place to be in, to continually be adapting, to construct confidence mentally. It is a very distinctive problem.
“I do not suppose I’ve something to show once you see the quantity of factors they’ve scored. It is like 5 factors in the whole season [seven points, actually].
Yuki Tsunoda, Purple Bull Racing Workforce
Photograph by: Zak Mauger / LAT Photographs by way of Getty Photographs
“To me, it is extra of a comeback to benefit from the sport. I need to benefit from the sport that I like, the game that has given me a lot. I could not afford to go away the best way I left the game, and for this reason I am coming again with this new undertaking. I hope it is a very profitable one. However amongst that, greater than something, I need to get pleasure from this comeback.”
Perez admitted that the troublesome circumstances round his Purple Bull exit, with no ensures over ever making it again onto an F1 beginning grid, meant it was essential for him to take an extended break from competitors and mentally disconnect earlier than embarking on a contemporary problem with the American staff.
“For me, it was essential to have this day without work the game, particularly as a result of it solely turned clear in direction of the top of the 12 months that I used to be not going to proceed with Purple Bull,” he revealed. “So, as a substitute of leaping into one thing only for staying on the grid, I wanted that point to disconnect from the game and to grasp what I actually need subsequent in my profession.
“It wasn’t very clear for me at first, particularly the primary couple of months, what I wished to do subsequent. The extra I used to be speaking to the Cadillac staff, the extra it turned obvious that that is what excites me to return. It is simply not going again to the grid with an everyday staff to struggle for podiums and races and factors. It is a complete undertaking. The dynamic, I really feel, is completely different.”
Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez, Cadillac
Photograph by: Cadillac Communications
When requested what he discovered from his time away, he replied: “I discovered about myself as a driver. I have been within the highlight for my whole profession – not simply in Method 1, even from the karting days. You realise that after you step again and take a look at the game as a fan, issues that racing drivers fear about are completely irrelevant to the general public facet, even to the people who know the game. My imaginative and prescient now, coming again to the game, is to get pleasure from it and provides the utmost each single time I am within the automotive, working with the staff, that is actually what issues. All the remainder are exterior components.”
That will even make it simpler for Perez to just accept beginning behind the grid, which might be a probable situation in 12 months considered one of Cadillac’s fledgling F1 journey below the brand new 2026 guidelines. “Typically in case your automotive is aggressive, you make it to the rostrum, however typically you have completed an amazing race and also you end P15,” he identified. “The driving force that finishes P15, figuring out that [he] has completed the utmost along with the staff and that they’re progressing, that needs to be one thing to really feel happy with, watching the game from the surface.”
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