“I have nothing to prove” with Cadilla...

Sergio Perez says the struggles of his Pink 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 had been introduced because the expertise pair that may lead Cadillac’s cost in 2026 as F1’s eleventh group. 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 Pink Bull’s tough 2024 automotive led to the group paying off his contract, as an alternative selling first Liam Lawson after which Yuki Tsunoda to the troublesome seat subsequent to Max Verstappen.

Coming again into the collection in a brand-new surroundings, six-time grand prix winner Perez says he can have “nothing to show” after his character-building Pink Bull departure given the robust 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 following drivers that had been in my seat however even earlier than that,” he mentioned. “Now everybody forgets about it, nevertheless it’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 assume I’ve something to show while you see the quantity of factors they’ve scored. It is like 5 factors in the whole season [seven points, actually].

“To me, it is extra of a comeback to benefit from the sport. I wish to benefit from the sport that I like, the game that has given me a lot. I could not afford to go away the way in which I left the game, and that is why I am coming again with this new undertaking. I hope it is a very profitable one. However amongst that, greater than something, I wish to get pleasure from this comeback.”

Perez admitted that the troublesome circumstances round his Pink Bull exit, with no ensures over ever making it again onto an F1 beginning grid, meant it was essential for him to take a protracted break from competitors and mentally disconnect earlier than embarking on a recent problem with the American group.

“For me, it was essential to have this time without work the game, particularly as a result of it solely grew to become clear in direction of the tip of the 12 months that I used to be not going to proceed with Pink Bull,” he revealed. “So, as an alternative of leaping into one thing only for staying on the grid, I wanted that point to disconnect from the game and to know what I really 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 group, the extra it grew to become obvious that that is what excites me to return. It is simply not going again to the grid with a daily group to combat for podiums and races and factors. It is a entire 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 complete profession – not simply in Method 1, even from the karting days. You realise that when 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 those 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 group, that is actually what issues. All the remainder are exterior components.”

That will even make it simpler for Perez to simply accept beginning in the back of the grid, which shall be a probable state of affairs in 12 months one in every of Cadillac’s fledgling F1 journey underneath the brand new 2026 guidelines. “Typically in case your automotive is aggressive, you make it to the rostrum, however generally you have completed an incredible race and also you end P15,” he identified. “The motive force that finishes P15, understanding that [he] has completed the utmost along with the group and that they’re progressing, that must be one thing to really feel pleased with, watching the game from the surface.”