Sergio Pérez completed his first race with Cadillac in Melbourne for the 2026 F1 season opener at the Australian GP. While struggles for the them made it a tricky weekend, he is still satisfied with the team’s overall debut performance, even if only one car crossed the finish line.
Sergio Pérez on Cadillac’s debut performance at the 2026 F1 Australian GP
Pérez reflected on the 2026 F1 Australian GP and shared that he was proud of the American team’s progress thus far. The Mexican driver added that he was excited for Cadillac to hit yet another milestone in its F1 journey.
“Yeah, I think the first step is done. As a team, completing the race was incredible.“
The Cadillac driver finished in P16, three laps behind race winner Mercedes’ George Russell. His teammate Valtteri Bottas faced an early retirement on lap 15 of the 2026 F1 Australian GP. The Finnish driver was forced to park up on the grass near the pits after facing a fuel system issue.
The 36-year-old acknowledges that there is a lot of work to be done at Cadillac but is confident that the team will be able to make progress. He shared that team morale is high in the garage and that they are working towards achieving big goals in their debut season.
“It’s a shame we couldn’t complete it, but overall it was a great one, a great recovery for the weekend.
“We started with a lot of issues, but I think from now on, you know, obviously honeymoon is over and now it’s all about, we need to do big steps forward, we need to put a plan as soon as possible on the team to move along and to the gap, which I believe that we can do, but obviously we are all very competitive inside the team and that’s the attitude we need around, you know, to be able to close the gap and aim for something big this year.”
Reigniting an old rivalry
Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Sergio Pérez have had several disagreements on track during the Mexican’s time at Red Bull in 2024. This was before Lawson was promoted to Red Bull the following season, taking over Pérez’s seat.
During the 2026 F1 Australian GP, the pair nearly made contact while fighting for position at Turn 3. This forced Lawson wide, but he ultimately made a move on Pérez later in the lap at Turn 11.
Lawson later spoke about the incident, ultimately reigniting the two-year-old rivalry. The New Zealander seemed convinced that Pérez’s intense racing was due to their history.
However, the Mexican driver was quick to dismiss this claim. He shared his perspective on the incident, calling it “a bit of fun racing”. The 36-year-old also did not mention the rivalry when he touched on the incident.
“No, for me it was just racing and it was a bit of fun racing, and that’s really it. I was in a much slower car, so I think it’s just fine to race.”
Pérez shares his opinion on the 2026 F1 rules
Following the end of the 2026 F1 Australian GP, many drivers spoke out on their experience with the 2026 rules. The majority of the grid voiced their frustration with the new 50/50 power split between internal combustion and electrical energy.
The Mexican driver added to the discourse and shared that he was still working out the system himself.
The new power unit requires significant ‘Lift and Coast’ (LICO) tactics to save enegry, which makes racing both unpredictable and confusing for drivers. Indeed, there can be massive differences in closing speed depending on how much battery a driver has left.
“It’s very hard to even understand what’s going on sometimes with the energy. You do a small lift, and it changes more than you would expect. Sometimes I was arriving 30 kph quicker into Turn 3 because of a different lift or a different throttle pickup. Stuff that, to be honest, I don’t understand, and it’s a very different Formula 1 to what I was used to.”
Pérez added that not only was racing very different from what he was used to, but it was also less enjoyable.
“It’s a lot less fun, definitely. It’s not as fun as it used to be, the racing side, and with this amount of management that we have to do, it’s not great, to be honest.”
Sergio Pérez agrees that racing at the 2026 F1 Australian GP felt artificial
Reigning World Champion Lando Norris was one of many drivers who criticised the 2026 cars following the end of the race. Norris shared that the new power unit felt too random. This made racing and even overtaking feel unnatural. It thus lacked the usual satisfaction drivers got on track.
Sergio Pérez agreed with the sentiment and share his own on track experience during the race. The six-time race winner revealed that when overtaking teammate Valtteri Bottas, he was shocked by how easy it was. He also admitted to miscalculating the distance while driving due to the unpredicabilty of the differences.
“Yeah, I was surprised when I was behind Valtteri [Bottas] how easy I overtook him. I thought I was going to get close, but I was halfway through the straight and I was like 5 metres ahead. I nearly overtook the car ahead [as well]; I think we are all […] with the artificial racing, it’s too artificial.
“Unfortunately, Formula 1 has changed a lot.”
