Red Bull F1 chief reveals Perez talks after Cadillac signing

Red Bull boss Helmut Marko has revealed that he has spoken to his former driver Sergio Perez about his recently-announced move to Cadillac.

The Mexican driver will be back on the grid in 2026 with the brand new American team, who announced their driver lineup of Perez and Valtteri Bottas earlier this week.

It was unclear whether Perez would ever return to F1 when he was dropped by Red Bull at the end of the 2024 season, having struggled mightily as Max Verstappen's team-mate for the last year and a half of his tenure with the team.

His struggles, combined with his lack of potential left to unlock at the age of 35, meant that he was staring down the barrel of going unsigned by any F1 teams until Cadillac made the call.

Marko backs Perez to return to form

Perez's record includes six race wins and nearly 40 podium finishes, and Red Bull advisor Marko has backed him to return to challenging at the front of races...if Cadillac can pull off the unlikely feat of arriving on the grid with a competitive car.

"I spoke to him on the phone and he's motivated," Marko told Kleine Zeitung. "If he's motivated and the car is right, then he'll definitely be back to the level he was at before."

Unfortunately for Perez's prospects, no team to enter F1 as a brand new team in the 21st century has won a single race, with the last newbies to stand on the top step of the podium being Stewart, in their third season.

In a stroke of coincidence, that Stewart team was the organisation bought a few years later by Red Bull and renamed – becoming Perez's home for five of his six race victories.

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