Perez penalty costs Cadillac first F1 point

Sergio Perez lost what would have been Cadillac’s first Formula 1 point in Monaco after a post-race 10-second penalty dropped him from 10th to 15th, promoting Fernando Alonso into the final points position and giving Aston Martin its first score of the 2026 season.

The FIA stewards ruled that Perez had been out of position for the standing restart after the red flag. In their report, they said they had heard from Perez and a team representative and reviewed positioning data, video and onboard footage before concluding that “the front right wheel of Car 11 was outside the starting box” and that “the standard penalty is applied.”

That decision wiped out a result Cadillac thought it had secured on only its sixth race weekend in Formula 1. Perez had crossed the line in 10th after recovering from an earlier drive-through penalty for lining up in Gabriel Bortoleto’s empty grid slot at the original start, then working his way into the provisional points as the race unfolded.

Before the verdict was issued, Perez told reporters he believed the evidence was open to interpretation. “We looked at different angles. It's hard to prove from one angle,” Perez said. He argued that there had been no gain from the positioning issue, adding: “Regardless of that, we got P10 on track. We had no benefit of that.” He also said, “From my side, I am optimistic from what I've seen, but at the end it's down to the stewards.”

The penalty changed more than Perez’s finishing position. Once the 10 seconds were added to his race time, he fell to last among the classified finishers, while Alonso inherited 10th place. That delivered Aston Martin’s first point of the year and, according to the reported championship impact, moved the team ahead of Cadillac in the constructors’ standings.

Perez’s Monaco weekend also brought a further sanction in the form of a reprimand for failing to follow the race director’s instructions on practice starts. The stewards noted: “The driver admitted that he had made a practice start in the wrong position.”

For Cadillac, the bigger blow was the result itself. What looked like a breakthrough first point became another near miss, while Aston Martin emerged from Monaco with a tangible gain in both its season tally and its fight with Cadillac in the early constructors’ race.