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Sergio Perez is preparing to drive for a sixth different team in Formula 1 during the 2026 season.
After making his debut for Sauber, Sergio Perez went on to drive for McLaren, Force India, Racing Point and Red Bull before dropping off the grid at the end of 2024.
Many believed that might be the end of Perez’s time in F1, but Cadillac have offered the Mexican driver and Valtteri Bottas a second chance.
By the time Red Bull dropped Perez after a disappointing 2024 season, every other seat on the grid was taken.
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However, it wasn’t the first time that the 35-year-old had found himself losing his seat with no guarantee of being offered another option.
When McLaren let Perez leave at the end of 2013, his only campaign with the team, he eventually ended up with Force India.
However, Perez has now revealed that his other option was Caterham, but he went on to admit that he would have rather quit F1 altogether than drive for the British team.
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Sergio Perez admitted he would rather quit Formula 1 than race for Caterham
Perez spoke about losing his position at McLaren on the Cracks Podcast and revealed: “It was frustrating, it was a difficult year because I was competing with Jenson, a driver who was already well established in the team, a world champion.
“I had a very good year in terms of speed and everything, but we were never able to show it because we were never able to make progress with the car, so they decided not to renew my contract.
“And in October, November, I didn’t have a place in Formula 1, and there were two teams, Caterham and Force India.
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“Caterham was not an option, I was clear about that, I wasn’t going to go to Caterham, I preferred to stop in Formula 1.
“ It was a very real option to look for another category, maybe one more year, to see if I could come back, but it wasn’t an option.”
Marcus Ericsson calls Caterham’s 2014 Formula 1 car a ‘one out of 10’
When Perez made his Force India debut in 2014, Caterham were preparing to start the season with Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson.
The British team had dropped Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde, and brought in the experienced Japanese driver Kobayashi, alongside Ericsson, who was making his F1 debut.
Ericsson recently rated all of the cars he drove in F1 on TikTok, having made his debut in the 2014 Caterham CT05 that Perez would have been driving if he had taken up their offer.
He said: “[I was] thankful to get the opportunity to drive in Formula 1, not so thankful about the performance of that very nicely green Caterham.
“It was a piece of beep to drive, and yeah, I mean, I’ve got to give it a one out of 10.
“That was not a good race car.”
Perez made the right choice, scoring 59 points for Force India and even finishing on the podium at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
In stark contrast, all four of Caterham’s drivers that year failed to score a point, with Andre Lotterer and Will Stevens both making one-off appearances for the team.
The team formerly known as Team Lotus failed to remain on the grid in 2015 after going into administration, highlighting that Perez made the right choice by ignoring their approach.
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