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Sergio Perez has admitted that Cadillac's recent stagnation in development has made the last few Formula 1 races a "disappointment," but he believes the team can still find another second of improvement by 2026.
In the early part of the season, Cadillac significantly developed its car, pulling away from the struggling Aston Martin. They regularly outperformed the Silverstone-based team, avoiding the back of the grid and the last-place finishes.
However, this progress has recently stalled. Aston Martin's own upgrades (including aerodynamic innovations in Hungary and the Netherlands, coupled with Honda's push for more power) led to a significant improvement in lap times, leaving Cadillac behind.
Perez believes Cadillac is capable of more. On the Formula 1 podcast "Beyond the Grid," he expressed the view that a new team should constantly be improving, but their recent form has stagnated.
"In terms of everything, I think the last few races have been a disappointment. There's a big disappointment because we haven't been developing. We haven't been improving," Perez stated. "As a new team, that's something we need to be doing every time. So I felt there was a bit of a stagnation in the last few races. And that's why we had to re-evaluate things, how we do everything. Obviously, as a new team, there are many things we are constantly learning," the Mexican driver added.
Perez quantified this in lap times, suggesting the team is missing a second from the time they expected to find in the first half of the year. Despite this, he believes Cadillac is "not that far" from the established teams, and finding such a significant amount of time could potentially be a game-changer for the squad, allowing them to pressure teams like Williams, Haas, and Aston Martin.
"I don't think we've improved as much as we hoped. We found, I don't know, one second? But we were probably looking for two seconds. The most important thing is to understand and review our processes, why didn't that second second come? Why haven't we improved in all these different areas? Because it's not just one thing; as a new team, there are many things involved. And I see them. If we improve our downforce, our suspension, many things, suddenly we won't be that far off. We're at the back, but half a second, one second would completely change our lives at this stage, you know? And I feel that for us, as a new team, that's achievable. It's possible," Perez explained.
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