Sergio Perez has secured a contract extension with Formula 1’s newest team Cadillac, meaning he is set to keep his seat through to the end of the decade.
Perez and fellow veteran team-mate Valtteri Bottas had joined the upstart F1 team for this season on “multi-year” contracts, though these weren’t thought to go beyond 2027.
Unlike for his team-mate Bottas, there has not been any question of Perez keeping the seat for next year – but Cadillac has now emphasised its commitment to and satisfaction with Perez by announcing a new deal on the eve of his home race, the Mexican Grand Prix.
The deal has been announced as being “until at least 2029”, which The Race understands does include the 2029 season.
When every F1 driver’s contract expires
Perez is set to record his 300th F1 start this weekend, the seventh-ever driver to do so, and the new contract means that in the coming years he is poised to overtake Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen for third on the all-time starts leaderboard.
That would place him behind only Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.
“Building a competitive team in F1 is a long-term journey, and securing Checo’s talent and leadership gives us the continuity and commitment we need to build on the strong foundation established in our first year,” said team CEO Dan Towriss.
Though neither Cadillac driver has scored points this year – Perez finished 10th on the road in Monaco but was denied by a post-race time penalty – Perez has separated himself from Bottas in terms of performance, with a marginal edge in qualifying and a more pronounced advantage in race pace.
Bottas, though, has argued that due to it being a new team with inevitable teething troubles – not to mention the first year of a very particular new set of regulations – there has not been the machinery consistency across the two parts of the garage to make for a fair comparison.
But Perez’s extension suggests Cadillac doesn’t quite see it that way – especially as it emerged last weekend that the team was not yet willing to commit to Bottas, not just longer-term but for 2027.
The likes of development driver Colton Herta, Frederik Vesti and Yuki Tsunoda have been mooted as alternative options for Perez’s 2027 team-mate.
If Perez sees out this new deal as advertised, 2029 will mark his 18th season in F1, at age 39.
