Sergio Perez backed for F1 return by former senior Red Bull figure

Sergio Perez has been tipped to make a return to the F1 grid by new Stake team principal Jonathan Wheatley. 

Wheatley served as Red Bull's sporting director during Perez's four seasons with the team, in which he won five grands prix and finished as runner-up in the 2023 standings.

However, an alarming slump in form in 2024 meant Red Bull axed Perez after the 2024 campaign, with the Mexican electing to take a year off to spend with his family before deciding whether he wanted to commit to a return to F1 for 2026.

One project Perez has been strongly linked with is Cadillac as the American team joins the grid in 2026, with Wheatley believing that if Perez was to decide to return, he would be able to compete at a high level. 

"I think he's more than capable of coming back and very quickly getting up to 
speed in a new team," Wheatley told Formula.Hu. 

"Checo was in one of the toughest seats in Formula 1 last year, next to Max, and when you're up against somebody like him, you have to keep looking in the mirror and asking more questions of yourself.

"I think if we look back, he struggled a little bit more with the car than Max did, and that seems to be consistent this year as well. 

"I was always surprised how he could rebuild himself and come back stronger from each 
setback. 

"He seems to have an incredible ability to rebuild, and I think also he's just got a great way with him, with the team, and the team naturally responds well to him."

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Perez's strengths

Wheatley also played up Perez's technical strengths, which could be ideal for a team needing to develop a package from scratch, such as Cadillac which joins the grid in 2026.

"He understands these things very well, and I always thought that his explanations to the engineers about how the car was behaving were very clear and easy to understand," he continued.

"Checo is a very professional, very talented and of course a very fast driver who is a pleasure to work with.

"It comes down as always to mental strength and confidence. I think if a driver's mentally strong and very confident and is driving at the top of his ability, he can miss a period and come back in and be fast again. 

"So that's the key, the mental strength is the key.”