Perez: Cadillac must strengthen development pipeline in 'not enough' plea

Sergio Perez has delivered a blunt assessment of Cadillac's maiden Formula 1 campaign, praising the team's competitive spirit while warning that the current rate of development is "not enough." The 36-year-old, who returned to the grid this year after a season away, says the squad must urgently tighten the link between its factory operations and the race track if it wants to move up the order.

Why it matters:

• With six Grand Prix victories and four seasons of championship battles at Red Bull behind him, Perez did not return to F1 simply to fill the back row.
• His public demand for faster progress signals that Cadillac's ambition extends beyond merely surviving its debut season, even as the team juggles facilities across Silverstone, Indiana, and North Carolina.
• Under the cost cap, new entrants cannot spend their way out of trouble, making an efficient factory-to-track pipeline essential to escaping the rear of the grid.

The details:

• Speaking exclusively to RacingNews365, Perez said that while the 2026 season has shown encouraging signs, recent races have been "painful" and the team must find more performance.
• He identified the lack of a streamlined "straight line" from factory to circuit as the operation's most pressing weakness, an inevitable growing pain for a team building across two continents.
• Cadillac came agonizingly close to its first point at Monaco before a time penalty cruelly denied Perez a milestone result.
• Despite the setbacks, Perez insists the entire organization shares his fierce refusal to accept backmarker status, describing the internal culture as "extremely competitive."

What's next:

• Cadillac's permanent headquarters in Fishers, Indiana, and its long-term power unit project are still taking shape, meaning the infrastructure to support faster development is coming, but not overnight.
• Perez remains realistic about the challenge of building from scratch in F1's fastest-moving environment, yet his message is clear: the team must accelerate its learning curve because encouragement alone will not close the gap to the midfield.