Sergio Perez has denied claims from Mario Andretti that he’s a “bit rusty” upon his Formula 1 return, saying he’s “performing on a very high level”.
Perez was dropped by Red Bull at the end of 2024 following an extremely poor season and took a sabbatical before signing with F1 debutant Cadillac for 2026.
It has been a relatively tough start to the season though, with zero points across the opening three rounds, but the American outfit starting 2026 as a backmarker was entirely expected.
Cadillac is two to three seconds off the pace and often endures some kinds of technical faults, but being above Aston Martin in the championship is at least one positive.
Nevertheless, Andretti, one of the original driving forces behind the Cadillac project, expressed doubt about the drivers as Perez’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas also returned to a full-time seat following his Sauber exit in 2024.
“To be honest with you, I think they’re both just a little bit rusty,” the 1978 world champion, who is the inspiration behind the Cadillac chassis name (MAC-26), told the Drive to Wynn podcast.
“They’ve both been out of the cockpit for at least one season. With the new package and everything else, they’re being very careful just to participate and not set anything back by maybe going out there and creating more work that’s needed.”
But Perez has disagreed with that notion as himself and Bottas are simply making do with the machinery that’s at their disposal, as the MAC-26 is just lacking overall speed.
“To be honest I think we've been performing on a very high level,” the six-time grand prix winner said ahead of last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix. “I was very happy with my weekend in Melbourne, my first qualifying, I was quite happy with it.
“In the race we had very different scenarios, we had a lot of damage. So it hasn't been really straightforward. Shanghai wasn't a straightforward weekend, I had a lot of damage in the race.
“I haven't had a complete weekend let's say, but I think in terms of my performance I'm fairly happy with it. Coming back and straight away I was on the pace within a couple of days. I believe I'm in a good place in regards to driving.”
Perez was even more upbeat following Suzuka as he finished on the lead lap for the first time in 2026, having also achieved his smallest deficit to the leader in Q1 – 2.171s compared to 3.098s (Melbourne) and 3.601s (Shanghai).
“It was quite interesting. When I was following – I was racing at the time the Williams, the Alpine – I could see that they're not too far away, they're just able to consistently keep finding pace and pace and pace,” said Perez.
This comes ahead of an April break before round four in Miami next month, as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East caused the Saudi Arabian and Bahrain grands prix to be cancelled.
“It's clear that we need a second now and I really hope that we are bringing a big upgrade for Miami,” added Perez.
“I think that will be the biggest test for the team. We've been progressing every grand prix, this is the first grand prix that more or less everything has been straightforward, apart from the deployment issues I had yesterday, everything has been straightforward.
“So, yes, I really hope that we can make that step to be in the mix with the midfield.”
