Checo Pérez: everything he has to do before returning to F1
Checo Pérez has a rigorous work schedule before returning to F1 with the Cadillac team.
Sergio Perez will drive again Formula 1 in a Grand Prix from March 6 to 8, 2026, when practice for the first race of the year begins, but while that happens, the Mexican driver will have to complete a series of previous tasks with his new team Cadillac F1.
Checo Pérez is not going to get into the car and nothing more. There is a lot of work behind the first moment a car is put on the track, and much more for a new team.
In fact, before March 6, it will be from January 26 to 30, in Barcelona, where the first private and official practices for the F1 teams will take place, then there will be two more training sessions in Bahrain, first from February 11 to 13 and, finally, from the 18th to the 20th of the same month.
In particular, for a pilot, preparations are a critical route that, the better it is carried out, will facilitate the moment of debut in which, necessarily, there will have to be some setback.
Thorough physical preparation
While the Cadillac F1 factories in Charlotte and Silverstone are working at full speed to create the prototype that will proudly carry the brand’s logo, Checo Pérez is working on fine-tuning his body to once again subject it to the demands of driving a single-seater.
The G forces, temperature and effort required to be inside that capsule called the cockpit are factors that challenge any athlete.
Pérez works under the care of his trainers and trainers Jo Canales and Xavi Martos, the same ones he has had in recent years, and with the supervision of nutritionist Beatriz Boullosa.
Aerobic exercise, strength and elasticity routines in the gym are the basis, but your best exercise will be getting behind the wheel of a car again, because that is not replicated in any way, especially work on the neck.
More simulator sessions
Although Cadillac F1 has four drivers working on the development of the car, which are Colton Herta, Pietro Fittipaldi, Simon Pagenaud and Charlie Eastwoodthe point of view of the starting drivers and their experience is vital for engineers.
For this reason, Checo Pérez will have to get into the simulator more times and experience all types of circumstances, to the limit to find optimal performance mechanically and aerodynamically speaking.
The simulator is a tool to do trial-error, new trial-error, until you find the limit or the desired performance and then even improve it. Believing that it is relevant to say that a driver “crashed” in the simulator is like believing that it is newsworthy to say that a pitcher threw a ball outside the strike zone in practice.
Return to an F1 car this year
As Cadillac F1 does not have cars from past years, you will have to purchase a Ferrari at least two years old to be able to make use of the authorized times for TPC tests and thereby provide training to its pilots, especially Sergio Pérez.
Czech, he said in interviews after his presentation with Cadillac F1, requires adapting to a car again and giving his body tools to awaken the motor memory of his muscles, particularly those of the neck.
These tests can be done at any track and at any time, so they will surely take place once the car is at the factory and is prepared for it.
Practice track process such as pit stops
In addition to driving stints, doing qualifying lap simulations, race laps and other exercises, Pérez will have to help oil the team of mechanics that will make up the Cadillac F1 pit crew.
Enter the pits again and again. Hitting the mark and helping the team perfect the one-stop process is critical. The choreography of a tire change in F1 is usually the difference between applying or having an undercut applied, between finishing in the points or outside of them.
Although the teams have simulators in the factories to practice changing tires, the actual practice, whether with auto off or on, is the acid test.
There are other procedures that must be refined such as entering and, mainly, exiting pits during a Qualy, as well as starting the car, since we remember that the gear is applied externally.
Feedback with engineers
How to communicate with career, performance, strategy and data engineers is basic. Every day where the driver shares his feelings on the track in talks with the technical team, the transmission of the details that will make the car better in the set-up is speeded up.
Again, this is a methodical, day-by-day job, especially when defining who will be the race engineer for each driver.
Know the chassis and livery of Cadillac F1
Although Checo Pérez has surely already been able to see the progress of the work of the Cadillac F1 design and aerodynamics team, the presentation of the car with the colors and shape that it will wear in the season will be an exciting and motivating moment.
Receive the Ferrari engine
As Cadillac F1 plans to compete with an engine made by General Motors until 2029, in 2026 it will be a customer of the Ferrari engine.
In Maranello they are already working on the power unit that at some point must arrive at Silverstone to be first tested on a table and then mounted on the car.
It is always special when the engine roars at the factory for the first time.
Make the car seat
Few things are as personalized in a Formula 1 car as the driver’s seat. The comfort and functionality of the seat inside the cabin is essential and that is why a mold of each pilot’s body is made.
The procedure is where the driver is literally made to sit on a flexible material inside the actual cockpit of the car to take the “imprint” left by the driver’s back, butt and legs. It will be a seat that will be comfortable only for him.
This process will occur once you have the cockpit that the car will have.
Thus, Checo Pérez has more homework than a child before the final school exams and with each completed work, others will be added. This is just a sample.
