Sergio Perez Reacts After Cadillac Stripped of Fairytale F1 Finish in Monaco

Cadillac was cruelly denied a fairytale first points finish in Formula 1 at the most glamorous event of them all after Sergio Perez was handed a penalty post-race.

The Mexican, who has been in fine form of late to prove that the American squad can mix it in the midfield early in its tenure on the grid, had finished 10th in the Monaco Grand Prix following penalties to rivals in what was an enthralling race around the Principality's streets.

But following a late red flag due to the track breaking up at Anthony Noghes - leading to crashes for Lance Stroll and Charles Leclerc - Perez lined up slightly outside his grid box and was subsequently hit with a 10-second penalty after the race, falling from 10th to 15th.

A gutted Charles Leclerc after a DNF at his home race! 😢#F1 #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/8DNi610mZo
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 7, 2026

And in a double-whammy for Cadillac after losing its first championship point, the position went to Aston Martin, leaving the American outfit at the bottom of the constructors' standings.

A stewards' report detailing the reasons behind the decision explained: "The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 11 (Sergio Perez), team representative and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video and in-car video evidence.

"Video evidence showed clearly that the front right wheel of Car 11 was outside the starting box. The standard penalty is applied."

It was an eventful race for Perez, who having started 18th, had reached 14th before being handed a drive-through penalty for being out of position at the original race start.

Sergio Perez, Cadillac, Monaco GP 2026 — XPB / Cadillac F1 Team

Safety cars and the red flag helped pull him back into contention with only 16 cars reaching the finish, though he was ultimately left empty-handed.

Reacting to the penalty, the former Red Bull, Racing Point/Force India, McLaren and Sauber driver remained optimistic and labelled the result "an amazing thing for the team".

"It was such a very tricky race out there with the vibrations – at some points we thought about retiring the car as it was so hard – but we didn’t give up, we kept pushing, kept our head down and the race presented us with another opportunity to go for it," he said.

"I had a poor restart but a tremendous first lap and overtook a lot of cars and in the end we finished P10 on the road. It was a shame with the penalty as we didn’t get any benefit from the restart, but that’s how it is – it doesn’t detract from the result today.”

Why was Perez handed different sanctions for the 'same' infringement

Despite being out of position twice at the standing starts, Perez was handed two different penalties - a 10-second penalty and a drive-through. But why? The restart mistake that cost 10th place saw Perez slightly out of the grid box, as explained in the above stewards' report.

However, the mistake at the start was far more egregious. Having qualified 18th, he was supposed to start behind the Audi of Gabriel Bortoleto. But after the Brazilian hit issues pre-race and forced to start from the pitlane, 16th on the grid was left spare.

At the end of the formation lap, Perez pulled into that vacant spot, essentially gaining a position and a huge advantage at a circuit where overtaking is typically the most difficult on the calendar, hence the heavy sanction dished out by the race stewards.

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