Why Max Verstappen’s verdict on Sergio Perez is good news for Cadillac

Max Verstappen is pleased to see Sergio Perez make his F1 comeback with Cadillac next year.

On Tuesday, Cadillac unveiled Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their inaugural driver line-up for 2026.

Cadillac joins the F1 grid in 2026 as the 11th team, but faces an unprecedented challenge of being competitive.

Unlike the last new team to join the grid in Haas, Cadillac are without significant support from an existing F1 team (Haas had a technical partnership with Ferrari).

Still, Cadillac is a major American brand, and have outlined their winning ambitions in the future.

Perez is currently on the sidelines after losing his Red Bull drive at the end of last year.

Speaking on Thursday ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen spoke positively about Perez and the impact he should have at Cadillac.

"When I saw the news, I sent a message to him, I am very happy he got a seat,” he said.

“He is a great guy, I am very happy to see him back on the grid. It is a new opportunity and I imagine he is very excited for it.

“He has driven at lots of teams, and every team works in a different way so that is interesting. Also the behaviour of cars – he has been in different rule sets and regulations.

“So to have that general understanding of how a great car is, hopefully that will push them forward in the beginning as it is never easy to jump into Formula 1 and be competitive straight away.”

A “fresh start” for Perez

Perez’s reputation has only been enhanced following Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda’s turbulent time at Red Bull.

Like Lawson and Tsunoda, Perez struggled to regularly score points in his final run of races with the team.

Verstappen sees Perez’s move to Cadillac as the perfect opportunity to have a “fresh start”.

“It’s a fresh start now. I think also from his side, a season doesn't define what you can do right? He’s also quite easy like that,” Verstappen added.

“Some people dwell on it a bit more but for Checo it’s a new start. He’s excited, completely new cars also. He has shown a lot of great things even before he got to Red Bull, during the Red Bull time. He just needs to go in there and enjoy it again, have a good time.”