Sergio Perez has labelled the opportunity to take a year out from F1 a “dream scenario” upon reflection, having been relieved of his duties at Red Bull last winter.<\/p>\n
Despite holding a contract for the 2025 campaign, the Mexican driver was put out to pasture by the Milton Keynes-based squad, with Liam Lawson initially preferred in the seat alongside Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n
Following his season on the sidelines, Perez will return to a full-time drive next term, partnering Valtteri Bottas at Cadillac.<\/p>\n
The fledgling American team is taking its first steps in F1, and the six-time grand prix winner was behind the wheel of the Ferrari SF-23 at Imola last week, as the General Motors-backed operation readies itself for its debut in 2026, when it will become the 11th team on the grid.<\/p>\n
Looking back on the period after being axed by Red Bull, the 35-year-old revealed he quickly realised he missed F1 and still had something left in the tank.<\/p>\n
“In the beginning, the first couple of months were great,” he explained in an interview with Formula 1. “I realised that I missed [F1] because I kept following it. I kept waking up for the races.<\/p>\n
“I could see what was happening \u2013 I was talking to friends that were in the paddock, and I realised that probably I missed it more than I thought.<\/p>\n
“And then when the conversation started with Cadillac and we could see that passion for racing, then, yeah, I felt like I still have something left in me.”<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tAn unforeseen advantage<\/p>\n
With the benefit of hindsight, Perez is thankful for the time spent away from F1, sharing that he is refreshed and ready to take on his next challenge.<\/p>\n
“It feels great,” the former Sauber, McLaren, Force India\/Racing Point and Red Bull driver said. “Now that I look back, it was like a dream scenario, being able to take a year out and then get that refreshment.<\/p>\n
“After 15 years or so in Formula 1 to get that refreshment and then have all the energy again for what I see as my final stint in the sport…<\/p>\n
“I have all the energy now to get back to it, to work with the team, to push the team forwards in all areas, on the simulator. It’s a new team, so we’re starting basically from zero.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sergio Perez has labelled the opportunity to take a year out from F1 a “dream scenario” upon reflection,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-294655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294655","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=294655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}