{"id":4712,"date":"2026-10-31T17:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T20:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/?p=4712"},"modified":"2026-10-31T16:49:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T19:49:51","slug":"cadillac-changes-sergio-perezs-f1-power-unit-before-mexican-gp-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/cadillac-changes-sergio-perezs-f1-power-unit-before-mexican-gp-qualifying\/","title":{"rendered":"Cadillac changes Sergio P\u00e9rez&#8217;s F1 power unit before Mexican GP qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">News Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Cadillac replaced Sergio P\u00e9rez&#8217;s power unit as a precaution<\/strong> during final practice for the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>P\u00e9rez completed only an installation lap and recorded no time in FP3<\/strong>, losing his final opportunity to prepare on track before qualifying.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No additional grid penalty has been confirmed<\/strong> for the Mexican driver, whose teammate Valtteri Bottas already faces a 50-place penalty.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cadillac has decided to <strong>replace Sergio P\u00e9rez&#8217;s power unit ahead of qualifying for the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix<\/strong>, leaving the Mexican driver without a timed lap during Saturday&#8217;s (31) final practice session. The American team described the change as a precautionary measure, adding another complication to P\u00e9rez&#8217;s preparations for his home race at the Aut\u00f3dromo Hermanos Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We are carrying out a precautionary power unit change on Checo&#8217;s car ahead of qualifying,&#8221; Cadillac said in a statement issued during FP3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The decision restricted P\u00e9rez to a single installation lap, preventing him from completing the qualifying simulations that other drivers carried out during the final hour of practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">P\u00e9rez loses final practice after difficult Friday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The power unit change followed a challenging opening day for P\u00e9rez, who finished <strong>18th in both Friday sessions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Cadillac driver completed 31 laps in FP1, setting a 1:20.395, before improving to 1:19.406 across 33 laps in FP2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">P\u00e9rez also acknowledged that he had not been feeling physically well during the opening day, although he indicated that he expected to be able to compete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His lack of running on Saturday means Cadillac must rely primarily on Friday&#8217;s data to prepare his car for qualifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Mexican Grand Prix carries particular significance for P\u00e9rez, who is competing in front of his home crowd in his first season with Cadillac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The race also represents his <strong>300th Formula 1 Grand Prix appearance<\/strong>, according to the milestone identified during the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cadillac faces double power unit disruption in Mexico<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">P\u00e9rez&#8217;s precautionary change comes after teammate Valtteri Bottas received a substantial penalty for exceeding the permitted allocation of power unit components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/bottas-handed-50-place-grid-penalty-for-mexican-f1-grand-prix\/\">Bottas was handed a 50-place grid penalty after Cadillac introduced five components beyond their season limits<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Finn finished FP3 in 20th position, setting a 1:20.342, while P\u00e9rez was unable to register a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Cadillac has not confirmed whether P\u00e9rez&#8217;s replacement components will result in a grid penalty.<\/strong> That will depend on the specification of the parts installed and their position within the driver&#8217;s permitted season allocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/\">final practice session was led by Lando Norris, who beat Andrea Kimi Antonelli by just 0.001s<\/a>, underlining the competitive challenge facing Cadillac as it prepares for qualifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>GRANDE PR\u00caMIO<\/strong> is following every session of the Mexican Grand Prix this weekend, with breaking news, full coverage and real-time updates in its <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/\">Formula 1 section<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sergio P\u00e9rez completed only an installation lap in final practice at his home Grand Prix as Cadillac opted to replace his power unit ahead of qualifying. No additional grid penalty has been confirmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020319431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"42wp_featured_image_caption":"Sergio P\u00e9rez","42wp_featured_image_credits":"Cadillac","42wp_featured_video":"","42wp_ai_content_disclaimer":"","42wp_is_ai_content":false,"42wp_featured_image_hidden":false,"42wp_authors_list":[{"id":7,"location":""}],"footnotes":"","42wp_hide_from_automatic":false,"42wp_breaking_news":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[77,324,963,265],"42wp_author":[7],"class_list":["post-4712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","tag-cadillac","tag-formula-1","tag-mexican-grand-prix","tag-sergio-perez","42wp_author-victor-martins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4713,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712\/revisions\/4713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020319431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4712"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=4712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}