Sergio Perez already considering Cadillac F1 exit after just five races

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Sergio Perez’s future at Cadillac is already in doubt after rival teams expressed an interest in the former Red Bull driver.

The American newcomers brought Perez back to F1 after he lost his Red Bull seat at the end of the 2024 season. He formed an all-veteran line-up with Valtteri Bottas.

Cadillac have struggled at the start of the season, but that was to be expected given the scale of the challenge. Perez, who retired from the Canadian GP after a suspension failure, hasn’t finished a race higher than 16th so far.

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‘It’s going to be very hard’ for Cadillac to keep Sergio Perez

According to Dutch F1 journalist Jacky Martens, Cadillac are already facing a ‘very hard’ battle to hold on to Perez for 2027. The Mexican apparently signed a multi-year deal, but it’s unclear if there are any exit clauses.

Perez is fielding interest from multiple teams and is of a mind to move further up the grid if an opportunity arises.

“I know there is interest from some teams,” Martens said on the Paddock Access podcast. “More than one. Cadillac would love to keep him, but it’s going to be very hard to keep him.

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“If he can get a promotion to a better team, a bit further up the grid, of course he would consider.”

In Canada, Perez was over a second off the time he needed to reach Q2, even though he was eight-tenths quicker than Bottas in the sister car. That’s the closest he has come to escaping Q1 all year – the average margin is 1.8 seconds.

• READ MORE: Sergio Perez says he can achieve ‘great things’ with Cadillac even as one of F1’s oldest drivers

Perez has been lapped five times this year, with Japan the only outlier. Even then, he was 92 seconds behind the winner despite a mid-race safety car that wiped out the gap.

The Cadillac project is clearly going to be long-term, but Perez is 36, so the timelines may not align. Perhaps he was willing to use Graeme Lowdon’s squad as a stop-gap to land a more competitive seat.

Elsewhere, there were rumours last weekend that Cadillac could drop Bottas, so a wholesale change is possible. Reserve driver Colton Herta is the standout candidate to replace him.