Sergio Pérez praises Cadillac’s determination and push despite losing the team’s first point in F1 Monaco GP, due to post-race penalty.
They joy turned into heartbreak pretty soon for Cadillac in F1 Monaco GP. At the onset of the Grand Prix, Pérez got a time penalty for a false start. While he hung on at the back of the pack, teammate Valtteri Bottas retired due to overheating. The Mexican too faced difficulties in the car.
They contemplated retiring the car at one point, but with the race scenario, they hung on. The red flag presented Cadillac with a chance to score. Pérez was just outside the Top 10. However, it was all undone when the Mexican was pinged for a false start at re-start.
Costly error from Pérez
He made another error at the start, with a potential penalty hanging on his head. At the restart, he managed to clear Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso to secure track position in the Top 10. With penalties to others, he eventually finished 10th to score a point for Cadillac.
But expectedly, he got a time penalty after the race, which dropped him to 15th, with the point going to Alonso then. It was certainly a huge disappointment, but the Mexican was happy with the work done by Cadillac. He praised the team’s persistence and determination despite the challenges.
“Regardless of that, we got P10 on track, we had no benefit of that, I actually had a very poor start, but the lap one at the racetrack was incredible, it made us come back and that was really what matters,” said Pérez in the print media pen after F1 Monaco GP – before he was penalised.
Difficulties galore for Pérez in F1 Monaco GP
“It was a very difficult race for us, very tough out there with the vibrations, with the brakes, with the engine, we thought at some point to retire the car, but we didn’t give up, we stayed out and the race gave us a new opportunity and we took it.
“It was tough, we were struggling a lot, we had to do a lot of LiCo (lift and coast) a lot of management on the engine at the same time, it was just a very tricky afternoon out there and we did struggle a lot and we’ll see what we can do in the coming weekends,” summed up Pérez.
Wasn’t as obvious the start error
The major error from the side of Pérez was false start. Unfortunately, it was not once but twice where he made the mistake and eventually punished for it. In normal circumstances, a penalty doesn’t harm as much considering the position he would finish due to the pace difference.
However, in F1 Monaco GP, it ended up hurting both Pérez and Cadillac. The Mexican didn’t think it was an obvious error. “No, it was not so obvious, I was having issues with the brakes and as I was getting to my grid slot I had a bit of a shade, but it wasn’t that clean,” he said.
Gaining places at restart crucial for Pérez at Monaco GP
The restart was important as well, considering the position he was in. He feels he didn’t actually gain anything from the false start, but the aggressive push post start that helped him make up places. The breakage of track in the last corner didn’t help either.
“Just with my restart, I knew that it was very critical to get Fernando but when I was P11, I thought look, anything can happen, people were locking up wheels ahead and stuff so I had a massive restart, gaining three places on that lap was really good,” said Perez.
“[On the track breakage,] yes, I was on to my engines since Lap 10 telling them that they need to clean it up because it was going to happen a shunt and I always had to take a very inside line into the final corner because it could have happened to anyone.”
Proud of achievements, but work still to do
Overall, Pérez feels good progress with Cadillac, especially on how they conducted and executed in only their sixth weekend in F1 2026. A point would have been an icing on the cake, but he is still proud of the step taken by the young team, even though there is much work to be done still.
“I think the team has to be very proud of the race that we achieved, we didn’t give up and it’s something great to see from everyone in Cadillac,” said Pérez. “We had one of the worst Monaco races I ever remember, we just had everything and we didn’t give up and that’s something great to see from the team.
“[And] yeah, definitely, I think we are definitely learning a lot, I think we got a lot of homework to do with the ride and stuff, it’s a lot of work to do ahead [despite the progress],” summed up Pérez.
