Cadillac Formula 1 executive engineering consultant Pat Symonds has defended Sergio Perez, arguing that the bad press the Mexican driver has received in recent years is "undeserved".
The American outfit joins the F1 grid in 2026 after gaining entry as the 11th team. It comes with the experienced driver line-up of former Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas and former Red Bull driver Sergio Perez.
Prior to leaving Red Bull at the end of the 2024 season, Perez faced intense scrutiny as he raced alongside four-time champion Max Verstappen. While the Dutchman thrived in the ground effect era and with the Red Bull machinery, Perez struggled to extract the same level of performance from the car.
With that said, Red Bull has not found a long-term driver for its second seat since Perez's exit. Liam Lawson took the 36-year-old driver's position for the start of 2025 but found himself demoted to Racing Bulls after just two race weekends, and while Yuki Tsunoda took the seat for the remainder of 2025, he has since been replaced by Isack Hadjar for 2026.
"Well, of course, I worked with Valtteri before, at Williams," Symonds told the media on the first day of pre-season testing in Bahrain. "I really liked working with him. Very competent driver, very fast driver, very good feedback.
"I didn't know Checo, so it was really good, even in that first simulator session, to listen to what he had to say. I was very impressed. Checo's had some bad press in the last couple of years and to me it's undeserved.
"He's a very competent driver, he's won races, he knows what he's doing. And with Zhou as well, he knows our reserve driver. Again, really, really good feedback in the simulator.
"Really good work ethic, he's sitting in every briefing, he knows exactly what's going on. We've got a great line-up there, I think."
