Cadillac are making a big mistake in Sergio Perez pursuit and damning Logan Sargeant comparison proves it

Cadillac’s driver lineup might not be finalised ahead of the 2026 season, but there are some strong indications over who it could be.

One name that keeps cropping up with Cadillac is Sergio Perez, who would be making his return to F1 after a brief sabbatical if he were to join them for 2026.

Perez is an experienced driver and would go hand-in-hand with a rookie or someone with limited experience in F1, especially as Cadillac has expressed interest in having an American driver as part of their lineup.

His time at Red Bull was marred by difficulties in getting around a problem with the braking system, which spiralled into poor performances in qualifying and on track.

There was also another worrying statistic that showed just how far away Perez ended up being from Max Verstappen in the end at Red Bull, which is likely to raise eyebrows at Cadillac.

• READ MORE: Red Bull driver Sergio Perez’s life outside F1 from net worth to nickname

Logan Sargeant was closer to Alex Albon than Sergio Perez to Max Verstappen

Perez had a trend of failing to get into Q3 that he replicated throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons, largely because of how he approached each session.

Whenever there was changing conditions, the Mexican would often mistime the crossover between wet and dry conditions, causing him to lose out to those who timed everything right.

Monaco was his worst result for two consecutive years, crashing out on both occasions in qualifying and starting at the back of the grid at a track where it’s almost impossible to overtake.

Data showed Perez was on average 0.63s slower Verstappen in qualifying in 2024, and in the race this performance gulf extended even more.

Perez’s delta to Verstappen was +0.53s compared to just +0.38s for Sargeant and Albon. This performance deficit was one of the biggest reasons why the team considered dropping in favour of Liam Lawson.

Cadillac will want a consistent driver lineup in its first years

Cadillac’s formative years in F1 will be spent as a customer team before General Motors comes into the foray with its own power unit in 2028.

In the meantime, they will want to ensure their driver lineup can deliver consistent results on track and do not cause too much crash damage as it could impact their development.

While Cadillac had the luxury of unlimited resources before being accepted as a team to develop their car for 2026, they still didn’t have much correlation between the track and what happens in their wind tunnel and CFD.

Cadillac will be wary of the impact too much crash damage will have on their ability to add upgrades, as it did with Haas when Mick Schumacher cost them millions in crash damage.