On 28 October Cadillac announced a multi-year extension that keeps Sergio Perez with the team "until at least 2029". The news came four days before his 300th Grand Prix start, at his home race in Mexico City.

The end year matters more than the length. In April 2025 the FIA approved GM Performance Power Units, the company TWG Motorsports and General Motors formed to build Cadillac's engines, as a power unit supplier "starting in 2029". Until then Cadillac runs Ferrari engines. Perez is now the one Cadillac race driver whose announced contract reaches the first season the team plans to race its own engine. The other seat has no commitment even for 2027.

Three years means 2029

Perez put a number on it himself. "I am fully committed for the next three years," he said in the statement formula1.com published. Counting from 2026, the three seasons he means are 2027, 2028 and 2029. The Race reported only that it "understands" 2029 is included. His own sentence already says so, and "at least" leaves room past it.

Perez's first Cadillac deal left the seasons after 2026 to options. According to formula1.com's Lawrence Barretto, it "included options over their future together from 2027 onwards". Rather than trigger an option for a second season, the two sides negotiated a new contract. Barretto writes that the deal came together quickly, in time to be announced before the home race.

What the FIA approval fixes

The FIA's release sets the order of events. GM Performance Power Units can supply the championship "starting in 2029". Cadillac uses Ferrari power units "until the GM engines are homologated for racing use". And a dedicated facility near GM's Charlotte Technical Center was planned to open in 2026. Russ O'Blenes, the supplier's chief executive, said the approval would help GM "accelerate our efforts to bring an American-built F1 power unit to the grid".

Dan Towriss, Cadillac's chief executive, said in February that the year had not moved. "If there are ways to speed it up, we will, but right now the focus is still 2029," he told formula1.com. He also said "it's possible that the regulations could change before 2031". So 2029 is a target the team has kept, not a date any rule forces. If the engine arrives on that date, Cadillac has a six-time Grand Prix winner signed for its first season.

The reports on the deal read it as a reward

The four reports on the extension cited here, three from formula1.com and one from The Race, never connect it to the GM power unit. They read the deal as payment for form. Formula1.com's comparison has Perez ahead of Valtteri Bottas 10-8 in qualifying and 6-1 in races both finished, with the team's fastest lap at 14 Grands Prix to Bottas's three. Formula1.com attaches its own caveat: Cadillac often runs different strategies on its two cars to learn faster. Bottas has argued, The Race reports, that a new team's teething problems have not given both sides of the garage the same machinery.

Those numbers have produced no points. Neither Cadillac driver has scored in 2026, formula1.com notes. In Monaco, a 10-second penalty took away the point Perez had provisionally scored. Towriss's own statement on the extension speaks of "continuity and commitment" and building "on the strong foundation established in our first year". Form explains why Perez was kept. It does not account for the end year, which lands on the engine's first season.

The second seat stays on a one-year clock

Bottas also joined on a multi-year deal. Formula1.com reports that Cadillac has yet to take up the option that would keep him for 2027, though he remains favourite. Colton Herta, Cadillac's test driver, is "firmly in contention", by Barretto's account. Herta has driven four first practice sessions in 2026 and needs one more super licence point. The team has said it wants an American driver "at some stage", on merit. The Race adds Frederik Vesti and Yuki Tsunoda to the names mooted.

That leaves a two-speed line-up into the engine change. One seat is fixed through the first GM season. The other is decided a year at a time, and Cadillac can choose who partners Perez in 2029 much later. Herta's practice running is the one part of that choice already visible on the timing sheets.

Age 39 in the first GM season

If Perez completes the deal, 2029 will be his 18th Formula 1 season, at 39, by The Race's count. Cadillac has written "at least" into the contract, so 2029 is the floor of the deal, not its end.

The next checkable date is the engine's, not the driver's. The FIA said the Charlotte facility was planned to open in 2026, which has two months left. Before that, Perez makes his 300th start on Sunday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.