Sergio Perez believes that the next stage of the 2026 Formula 1 season will be decisive for Cadillac. The Mexican driver stated that the race in Miami will be ‘the biggest test’ for his team, which seeks to make a leap in performance after a discreet start.
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After the first three stages, the new team is still trying to adapt to the reality of Formula 1. The five-week break caused by the cancellation of the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia due to the war in the Middle East offers an important opportunity for technical evolution before the resumption of the championship.
Without experience in the category, Cadillac started the year fighting at the back of the pack, but Perez showed optimism with recent progress. The Mexican highlighted that, even though still far from direct competitors, the team has shown constant evolution throughout the first weekends.
“It was very interesting when I was following, I was racing at that moment. Williams, Alpine, I could see they weren’t very far away. They just managed to keep finding pace consistently,” stated Perez, citing Williams and Alpine as references in the midfield.
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Despite the progress, Perez made it clear that Cadillac still needs to find a lot of lap time to compete for more competitive positions. The driver expects a significant update to be introduced as early as the Miami GP, the stage that opens the sequence of races in early May: “It’s clear that we need to find a second now. And I really hope we are bringing a big update to Miami, and that will be the biggest test for the team,” stated the Mexican.
Perez also highlighted that the team has been advancing gradually at each stage, but pointed out specific areas that still need improvement. According to him, the car presented a more consistent weekend recently, with the exception of problems on Saturday: “We have been evolving at every GP. This (Japanese GP) was the first race where, more or less, everything was straightforward, except for some problems I had on Saturday,” he added.
The Mexican also pointed out the car’s main weakness: “There are many areas, but at the moment the main one is low speed, that’s where we are struggling. The balance itself is not that bad. We are just losing performance in the slow corners,” he completed.
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