Sergio Perez says Cadillac faces a difficult decision over who his 2027 team mate should be.
The team announced an extension on Perez’s contract which will keep him in the cockpit until 2029. However it is yet to confirm whether it will retain Valtteri Bottas beyond the end of this season.Neither driver has scored any points so far this year. Bottas has scored the team’s best finish, with 13th. But Perez has outqualified his team mate 10-8 in grands prix and in the six occasions both drivers finished the grand prix, Bottas was only ahead once.
Cadillac placed IndyCar race-winner Herta in Formula 2 this year but he is languishing in 19th place in the standings. He will make his fifth appearance for the team in an F1 practice session this weekend.
Despite Herta’s struggles in F2, Perez says their test driver is “doing a good job” in his F1 role. “He’s bringing good feedback to the team, good information, which is all we need from him,” said Perez.
“Obviously, doing FP1s it’s always very difficult to show your speed or to show the level that you are at. But now I think that he’s having more time in the car, in the simulator, so we’re starting to see more of his speed.”
“Obviously it’s not my decision,” he added. “I think it will be down to Marcin [Budkowski, team principal] to decide who they want in the car.
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“I’m also working really well with Valtteri. I think he’s been very unfortunate in a few races. I think in Austin he showed very strong pace. So it’s not an easy decision for the team.”
However Perez said the team’s priority over the coming months needs to be its preparations for 2027.
“Marcin will be looking at all the data and all the information and he will be ultimately making that decision to see what he thinks is best for the future of the team.
“Obviously we are in a period where we need to evolve extremely quick. The next three or four months [for] the team are really, really crucial in our preparation, so I think it’s down to him.”
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