‘Max was straight on’: Perez says Verstappen led paddock well-wishers after Cadillac deal
Sergio Perez didn’t need to scroll far to find the first message after his Formula 1 comeback was announced. It was from Max Verstappen.
Perez, who left Red Bull at the end of last season, will return to the grid in 2026 as one half of Cadillac’s debut F1 line-up alongside Valtteri Bottas. The Mexican admits he expected a few “welcome back” texts. He didn’t expect his phone to melt.
“I was surprised,” Perez said after the Cadillac news dropped. “A lot of drivers messaged me. They seemed to miss me. I would say the first one was Max. Max was straight on… team-mates, Gasly, Franco [Colapinto], they did send me a message. We have a group where they posted the message, so it was nice to see they’re happy to see me back.”
The Verstappen-Perez dynamic was always more human than headline writers liked to admit, and the reigning World Champion backed that up at Zandvoort when asked about his former team-mate’s return.
“Quickly, when I saw the news come out, I sent a message to him,” Verstappen told reporters. “I’m very happy for him that he got a seat. He’s a great guy, and we always got along very well, so I’m happy to see him back on the grid. How he’s going to perform will also depend on how good the car is… but it’s a new opportunity, and I’m sure he’s very excited for it.”
Cadillac’s 2026 driver choice is deliberately low-drama, high-experience. In Perez and Bottas, the American marque has assembled one of the most seasoned pairings on the grid for the first year of the new project, and that matters when you’re starting from nothing. Those early laps, those first feedback loops, the brutal honesty on what works and what doesn’t—this is where grey hair beats raw speed nine times out of ten.
For Perez, it’s a reset on his terms. The Red Bull chapter ended, but he never hid the itch to be back, and the Cadillac seat gives him exactly that: a clean slate and a factory badge with serious intent. There’s no disguising the scale of the task, of course. Cadillac’s first F1 car won’t turn a wheel in anger until pre-season next January, with the initial test slated to run behind closed doors at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Until then, it’s simulator miles, seat fits and a lot of patience.
What’s interesting is how warmly the paddock has received it. Drivers don’t throw around congratulations for the sake of it; attention spans are short and phone batteries are precious on a race weekend. The notes from Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto, plus the chatter on the drivers’ group, suggest Perez’s two-year grind at Red Bull didn’t burn the bridges people on social media thought it did. It also hints at a wider curiosity about Cadillac’s arrival: everybody wants to know what GM is really bringing to the party in ’26.
And Verstappen’s caveat is the only one that matters. Everything will hinge on whether the car gives Perez and Bottas a platform that’s at least tidy out of the box. If it does, Cadillac has two drivers who know exactly how to bank points and build programmes. If it doesn’t, they have two drivers who won’t panic.
For now, Perez is simply back in the conversation. That smile in the paddock will read a little different the next time we see it. He’s not the guy defending against his team-mate every Sunday; he’s the cornerstone of a new team with something to prove. Different pressure. Different opportunity. And, judging by his inbox, plenty of people are glad to see him take it.
