Perez on his F1 reset – and the ‘big lesson’ behind his comeback

Sergio Perez returns to Formula 1 with a revelation he didn’t know he needed. A year away from the grid – his first real pause in nearly two decades – forced him to confront a truth about life inside racing’s inner circle, one that now shapes everything about his comeback.

It wasn’t the loss of a seat that hit hardest, he says, but what the silence afterward made unmistakably clear.

Perez, who stepped out of F1 after a depressing end to his Red Bull tenure, speaks now with the assurance of someone who has finally climbed above the sport’s constant noise. And the Mexican driver now openly admits that the reset has changed him.

“I didn't feel at the time [but I needed the break],” he told F1’s official website.

“When you are in the sport, you are carried away with the fact that you are always thinking about your next year, your next race, your next contract. It's like you are in automatic mode. But once you are forced to step out of it like I was, you realise a lot of things and you see the sport different.”

Rediscovering the Spark

Perez left Red Bull as a driver drained of momentum, scoring only nine points across his final eight races and struggling under pressure he rarely felt able to shake. Confidence eroded, motivation slipped, and by the end of 2024 he was no longer certain the sport he’d dedicated his life to still had room for him.

But the months that followed surprised him.

“Yeah, definitely,” he says when asked if he’s rekindled his affection for the sport. “You have to remember that my last six months at Red Bull were very difficult for myself in all areas.

“I started to have a bit of demotivation with the sport and I cannot let that happen because this is a sport that gave me everything.

“The day that I leave the sport, I want to leave it with a big smile and a lot of respect because the sport has given me everything.”

What started as a much-needed breather soon became something more revealing.

“In the beginning, the first couple of months were great,” Perez recalls. “I realised that I missed [F1] because I kept following it. I kept waking up for the races… And I realised that probably I missed it more than I thought.”

That awakening reopened the door to a prospective comeback – and one team in particular stood out.

A New Chapter with Cadillac

Cadillac’s 2026 entry offered Perez a rare chance: a clean-sheet project backed by significant investment and built from experienced personnel across the paddock. For a driver seeking a purposeful final chapter, it was the ideal fit.

“It feels great,” he says. “Now that I look back, it was like a dream scenario, being able to take a year out and then get that refreshment… I have all the energy now to get back to it, to work with the team, to push the team forwards in all areas.”

Perez has already thrown himself into simulator work, technical discussions, and recently completed his first stint in F1 machinery in nearly two years. His influence, he says, is welcomed – something he hasn’t always felt in previous teams.

“It's been good being backwards and forwards with the team,” he says. “I've been pushing on some certain areas, giving some direction. It's great to have a team that you feel that you can influence and you can ask for certain things.”

He knows Cadillac faces a steep challenge in 2026, but he is bullish about the journey.

“To me, it's a bit irrelevant where we start. What is more important is how quickly we are able to progress. I want to push the team forward from day one. I think we will be able to surprise a lot of people.”

The Biggest Lesson

For all the technical resets and new machinery ahead, Perez’s most important takeaway from his year away is a deeply personal one – a shift in mindset forged in the quiet hours between races he wasn’t driving.

“When you are in that bubble of Formula 1… as a driver you worry about a lot of factors,” he explains.

“You are not always satisfied because you didn't take the extra time that was in there and so on and you forget that the main thing is to enjoy it, because at the end of the day, we are privileged to be able to do what we love.

“That to me was like the biggest lesson: that you have to enjoy the sport because we are so competitive and we are so focused on giving our maximum that you forget to enjoy it.”

This is what Perez brings with him into Cadillac: not just experience, but perspective. A veteran who finally stepped off the treadmill long enough to see the track differently.

And he’s clear about what comes next.

“I see this as my main, big, final project in the sport and I want to make sure that I make it a successful comeback,” he says.

The lesson changed him. Now he intends to let it change his final act in Formula 1.

Read also: Lowden lifts lid on Cadillac’s F1 pre-season preparations

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