The real reason Perez testing a Ferrari for Cadillac – Today, Sergio Perez returned behind the wheel of a Formula One car since he was dropped by Red Bull at the end of 2024. The Mexican will drive for new team Cadillac in 2026, alongside Valterri Bottas as the America outfit choose drivers’ with F1 experience to front their first season.
Bottas meanwhile is under contract to Mercedes and will only be released come the season finale in Abu Dhabi. The car Perez is testing is a two year old Ferrari which is allowed under the FIA ‘test of previous cars’ regulations.
The test is not to get Perez back up to speed, although it won’t do him any harm to get a refresher day after almost twelve months of not driving at the ingest level.
Cadillac will not build 2026 style PU
The test is not designed to allow Cadillac some insight into how a competitor’s car may work and neither is it to get a feel for how the Ferrari power unit operates, given Cadillac will be a customer of the Scuderia for its powertrain.
Given Cadillac was only given the green light to join the grid during the 2024 US GP weekend, it was impossible to them to design and build on of the most complicated PU’s in global motorsport. In fact, they will only take up manufacturer status in 2029 the FIA announced earlier this season.
Even then Cadillac will not build one of the new 2026 era style powertrains given both the FIA and FOM agree this breed of engine will be phased out as quickly as possible meaning that 2030 is likely to be the final year of the new V6 hybrids.
Cadillac’s manufacturing status will allow them the collaborate on the next generation of F1 power, before they design and build their own engine for 2031.
The Honda example
The reason Cadillac are not trying to play catch up and build a 2026 specification powertrain for 2027/8 is firmly rooted in the experience of Honda who joined the current power unit era a year late in 2015.
McLaren had pressurised Honda to build a power unit for 2015, while there Japanese company would have preferred to take its time and wait a further season. The result featured a compromised layout, with the compressor mounted on the V6 block but it was smaller than rival designs in an attempt to fit into McLaren’s ‘size zero’ car design philosophy. The result was a hugely underpowered and unreliable engine which famously Fernando Alonso referred to as ‘like a GP2 engine.’
It was only when Honda shifted to partner with Red Bull Racing in 2019 that the true promise of their efforts began to show. They won 16 races between 2019 and 2021 before they were rebadged as a Red Bull Powertrain having taken the decision to withdraw from the sport.
Honda in fact did a U-Turn on its decision to leave F1, but meanwhile Red Bull had negotiated a deal to run their now frozen power unit design under the RBPT badge. Cadillac are desperate not to repeat Honda’s hasty entrance to building a power unit and so will run with Ferrari power for the next five seasons.
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Cadillac testing “the team”
Yet the power unit Perez is testing today will be nothing like the Ferrari design for 2026. The electrical power has been upped by a factor of three and bio fuel is being introduced with each manufacturer working with their lubricants partner to finalise its design.
The real reason Perez is testing the 2023 Ferrari with a black livery today was explained by Cadillac team boss Graham Lowden. “Actually, current team testing is kind of what we’re interested in. We want to use a car, because in all of the simulations that we mentioned, we try and make it as real to life as possible,” he told Autosport.
“I think everyone gets a little bit wrongly concerned, that in some way we can get an advantage by testing someone else’s car or something. But we’re not testing the car, we’re testing the people. Yes, we are looking to gain the advantage, but not from anything to do with the car. The advantages that we want is for our mechanics to have the same experience that all the mechanics in this pit lane are having every day working with each car.”
He added: “You have to get the mechanics used to that muscle memory of operating an F1 car. You have to be able to stick tyre blankets on, and then there’s just the size of a car and the heat that comes off one, and the presence that they have.”
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Expectations being measured
Given the number of pit stop failures this season from race teams who are well drilled, the Cadillac race crew – who may well consist of mechanics who have worked in this role for other F1 teams – will be keen for the opportunity to work in a “live” situation today. They will test their own wheel gun designs and lighting system, together with moving there car around in and out of the garage.
Today Audi who will join F1 in 2026 revealed the livery the car would adorn and despite them having bought F1 team Sauber, Audi’s CEO is dampening down expectations. “We are not entering Formula 1 just to be there,” he said. “We want to win. At the same time, we know that you don’t become a top team in Formula 1 overnight. It takes time, perseverance and tireless questioning of the status quo. By 2030, we want to fight for the world championship title.”
Whilst Audi have the daunting task of building their first ever F1 engine, their chassis department is well established at Sauber’s Swiss base in Hinwii.
Cadillac have no engine to build, but do face the challenging prospect of building their first chassis and despite having Ferrari power, there trajectory to winning ways will probably be similar to that of their German rivals.
Ferrari’s refusal to change sparks Hamilton row
Lewis Hamilton finds himself in good company having been lambasted by Ferrari group chairman, John Elkann. When Fernando Alonso was driving for the team in 2013, he was asked what he would like after as a birthday present after finishing a lowly fifth in Singapore. The Spaniard quipped: “someone else’s car.”
This sparked a furore in Maranello with the PR department releasing an unusual statement about a conversation between the then chairman, Luca de Montezemolo and his Spanish driver. “All the great champions who have driven for Ferrari have always been asked to put the interests of the team above their own,” it opened.
According to the statement, Di Montezemolo also insisted that “this is the moment to stay calm, avoid polemics and show humility and determination in making one’s own contribution, standing alongside the team and its people both at the track and outside it”…. READ MORE
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A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13 and a career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media. Having trained in investigative journalism and contributed to several European sports outlets, Hunt brings rigour and polish to every article. His role is to sharpen analysis, check facts and ensure TJ13’s daily output meets the highest editorial standards.
This all sounds wonderfully, refreshingly sensible from Cadillac … more power to their elbows!!