How Cadillac completed the Italian Grand Prix without even being on the grid<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cNext week, I will be in Charlotte and in England,\u201d Perez said at the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s important to drive this year, especially for the neck, so that my body adapts again to what\u2019s going to happen in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will train in the simulator, and there are plans for me to test an old F1 car.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exact dates have yet to be specified for these on-track tests, and details are not expected to be communicated to Perez until, at earliest, next week when he visits the factory at Silverstone.<\/p>\n
There are currently no firm plans in place about the car which the team will use \u2013 whether that be an older F1 car from another team, as the TPC rules allow for pending FIA approval, or even a car from a lower formula.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have a previous car. The car isn\u2019t actually important,\u201d team boss Graeme Lowdon explained this week on the\u00a0Beyond The Grid\u00a0podcast, when asked about the TPC rumours.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not looking to do this test to engineer something, which is what a lot of the other teams are looking to do at the minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want the mechanics to get used to regain that muscle memory of working with a live car, it doesn\u2019t have to be a Formula 1 car. It\u2019s good if it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The news of a test in itself isn\u2019t a surprise; in fact, back in August\u2019s press conference with both Bottas and Perez, the driver from Mexico was clear that he\u2019d have some work to do in order to get himself back into grand prix racing shape, particularly considering he stepped away from Formula 1 after 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it was very important to have this time off from the sport, you know, especially because it only became clear towards the end of the year that I was not going to continue with with Red Bull,\u201d Perez explained to media, including PlanetF1.com, during that press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo instead of jumping into something just for staying on the grid, I needed that time back to disconnect myself from the sport a bit and to understand what I really want next in my career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t very clear for me in the beginning, especially the first couple of months, what I wanted to do next. And the more I talked to the Cadillac team, the more it became apparent that this is what excites me to go back, you know?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a project itself. It\u2019s just not going back to the grid with the regular team to fight for podiums and races and points.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of the clarity Perez uncovered during that time away from the F1 grid was understanding that he actually enjoyed the hard work of physically preparing oneself for competing in such an intense sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always thought I hated [training],\u201d Perez admitted, \u201cbut this time that I had off, it made me realize that I really enjoyed training. So I\u2019ve been staying fit. Obviously haven\u2019t driven anything for a while, other than karting with my son.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut yeah, there are some plans with the team to test a Formula 1 car before the end of the year, and obviously, next year, with the testing that we\u2019re going to have, is going to make that dust go away extremely quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know what Formula 1 is about, and I will be ready to deliver from the first race onwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perez threw the ceremonial first pitch at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday evening as part of the team\u2019s ongoing celebration of Mexican Heritage Month.<\/p>\n
Read next:\u00a0Which area Cadillac will \u2018turn our attention to\u2019 next after driver signings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Incoming Cadillac F1 driver Sergio Perez has confirmed that he has plans to get behind the wheel for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,3550,817,813,816,818,44,2072,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-152520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cadillac","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-home-page","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-sergio-perez","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}