Sergio Perez has admitted that this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix may be the "last chance" for his Cadillac team to finally score their first points of the 2026 Formula One season. The newest team on the grid remains the only outfit yet to register a score this year.
While that is understandable to an extent, it still represents a brutal reality check for Cadillac, who have been shown the high level required to achieve even a little success at the pinnacle of motorsport. The American team made sure it was armed with as much experience as possible for its first year in F1.
Experience not enough
Perez and team-mate Valtteri Bottas have 16 Grand Prix wins, 106 podiums and more than 500 starts between them. But that alone has not been enough to secure a points finish so far in 2026, with the car simply unable to put them in that position.
Reliability issues have caused plenty of problems and, even when they have avoided issues on that front, the pace hasn't been there to deliver a top-10 finish. Bottas' 13th place in China back in March remains their best Grand Prix result to date, though Perez was only denied a point by a post-race penalty in Monaco after he had finished 10th on the road.
Last good chance
Ahead of this weekend's Singapore race, Perez told reporters he believes this could be their last chance to get off the mark. "It's a good opportunity for us, probably our last one to do something important, given the delta we currently have with the car and that we are not bringing anything," he said.
"It's probably our last good chance to try and get a strong result here. That will be a crucial one for us."
A team in Cadillac's position, where they aren't really able to compete with others on a level playing field, often needs luck to go their way. Misfortune striking others is also helpful, and there are two chances for that to happen in Singapore where, for the first time at the Marina Bay Circuit, the Sprint format is being used.
Street circuit specialist
"It puts a little bit more uncertainty on the weekend, a little bit more tension," Perez said. "On a street circuit, at a race that is so hard to get the confidence [to] build up, the driver can make a bit of a difference in these sort of weekends."
Perez is known as something of a street circuit specialist – five of his six career victories were achieved on street tracks, including one at the Marina Bay Circuit while driving for Red Bull in 2022. While Cadillac are nowhere near that position, he enjoyed one of his best weekends of this season at the Baku Street Circuit last month and hopes to recreate that form this weekend.
He said: "Normally on a circuit, it takes you a bit of time to get up to speed. So, one practice into qualifying, it's good. We will give everything we have. We have to, especially for qualifying, we need to be able to overdeliver massively to get something. Baku was a good example. Hopefully, here can be a bit of the same."
