Perez back in black: first laps at Imola as Cadillac’s F1 project fires up
Imola doesn’t do soft launches. On a cool Thursday, a stealth‑black Ferrari SF‑23 rolled out of the pits and, beneath the helmet he’s worn through a dozen F1 lives, Sergio Perez was back at work.
After a year out following a bruising 2024 that ended with his Red Bull exit and a drop to eighth in the standings, Perez has started the long run‑up to Cadillac’s debut campaign. The American marque, set to enter as Formula 1’s 11th team with Ferrari power, signed Perez and Valtteri Bottas in August to lead its 2026 effort. This was the first proper taste of trackside life with his new crew.
It wasn’t a Ferrari test in the traditional sense. The SF‑23 was chosen as a reliable, known quantity — and painted in an all‑black, sponsorless look that only heightened the intrigue. A short shakedown, just a handful of laps around the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, but plenty to get everyone speaking the same language.
“I’m curious, you know, to find out how many laps my neck will do before it gets destroyed,” Perez quipped, only half‑joking. Twelve months without G‑forces will do that to any driver. The shakedown was as much about waking up muscles as it was about building muscle memory with a new team.
What mattered more was who stood on the other side of the garage wall: Cadillac’s mechanics and race engineers, the people Perez will live with through late nights, iffy weather and teething problems. “It’s a great test and a great way to finish the year before getting back in the car next year,” he said. “It’s basically time for us to get together with the engineers, mechanics, start working all together, start talking the same language.”
Perez has already logged hours in Cadillac’s simulators in the US and at Silverstone, but sim time only goes so far. Feeling the brake pressure, the throttle bite, the way a car rides the kerbs at Imola — that accelerates trust. From the radio chatter to how a front wing change is handled, today’s shakedown put live reps on all the small things.
For context, the Mexican leaves Red Bull with a record that still travels well. He added four podiums in his final year with the team, bringing his career tally to 39, including six wins. And while he’s realistic about Cadillac’s starting point, he’s not shy about the ambition. “I think we’re going to start at the back, progressively move forward. But ultimately, in the near future, [the podium] is a target,” he said. “I’ve been on the podium with all the teams I drove for, except McLaren. It doesn’t matter who gets there, as long as it’s Cadillac.”
There’s a pragmatism to that line. New teams don’t turn up and blow the doors off the field. They grind. They learn quickly or get swallowed. The Ferrari partnership should hand Cadillac a stable platform to build around early, especially as Perez and Bottas bring two lifetimes of setup reference and racecraft. And for Perez, who’s made a career out of reading races better than most, the project offers a reset with a purpose.
The mileage at Imola was modest — a controlled systems check rather than a glory run — but the sight of the all‑black Ferrari carving through Tamburello was enough to confirm what his simulator coaches would have already suspected: the instincts are still sharp, the appetite still intact.
The real work starts in earnest next year as testing ramps up and the car that carries the Cadillac name finally turns a wheel. For now, Perez has his first laps in the bank, some new voices in his ear, and that familiar mischievous grin when the neck talk comes up. Day one went to plan. The rest of the comeback will be harder — and that’s exactly why he signed up.
