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Sergio Perez expects to make a decision about whether to pursue a Formula 1 comeback in “the next six months”.
The Mexican has been left on the sidelines for this season after he and Red Bull agreed to part ways at the end of 2024 following a disappointing campaign.
Perez disappeared from the spotlight in the wake of that split, but on Friday he made his first public appearance since, as he spoke at the Feria de Leon festival in Guanajuato in Mexico.
Answering questions on stage, Perez made it clear that for now he was happy to step away from the commitments of F1 and ready to enjoy life with his family.
“I am very excited about what is coming this year,” he said during the appearance. “I am very calm, very happy.
“I am enjoying my children, my family, and my friends very much.”
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Pushed a bit on his racing plans, Perez suggested he would take a few months out before pondering his next steps – which may or may not be in F1.
“In the next six months I will make a decision about my future and about the next steps of my career,” he said.
“Will I return to F1? It is impossible to answer now. It is too early.
“Everything happened so quickly at the end of last season. I did not expect to leave the team.”
The Race understands that while Perez is happy to embrace family life away from F1 right now, he also would rather his disappointing 2024 and abrupt Red Bull exit wasn't the way his F1 career concluded.
“The important thing is that I have never given up," Perez added. "Whenever something difficult happened in my career, better things came along. But it was because I never gave up, I never surrendered.”
PEREZ'S OPTIONS ARE LIMITED
However, even if Perez decides over the next few months that he wants to get himself back in F1 action, his options for a swift comeback appear to be quite limited as most drivers on the grid now are on long term deals so there are not too many vacancies.
Further hampering his chances are that, out of the four current teams that could have empty cockpits for 2026, none seem to be a particularly good match.
A return to Red Bull as a potential Liam Lawson replacement will not happen, and there is little reason to see Racing Bulls having any interest in him if either Yuki Tsunoda or Isack Hadjar do not stay.
At Mercedes, neither George Russell nor Andrea Kimi Antonelli are guaranteed beyond the end of this year, but even if one of them moves on, the team would be highly unlikely to view Perez as its best option.
The only other avenue could in theory be Alpine, which has Jack Doohan on a short term deal. However, it is pretty much accepted that if Doohan does not deliver and the team wants to slot someone else in then that will be its reserve Franco Colapinto.
This all means that Perez has little hope of anything opening up with the current squads.
IS CADILLAC THE ANSWER?
However, a lifeline could be offered by the new Cadillac squad.
It will be eager to get some experience on tap if its entry for 2026 is confirmed, and Perez also has the bonus potential of having some pretty major sponsors behind him.
By the time Perez gets around to making a call on his future in six months, then Cadillac will almost certainly know whether its place on the grid has been formally signed off by both the FIA and FOM.
It may not be coincidence that those two timelines very neatly match up.
