– A very satisfied Sergio Perez and a frustrated Valtteri Bottas caused mixed feelings at Cadillac after the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid – but the race Sunday did provide reason for hope.
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Cadillac has so far been the backmarker in the team’s debut Formula 1 season and initially mainly fought with Aston Martin, before the competitor made progress. At the Spanish Grand Prix, however, the race pace of the US team was encouraging, even though points remained out of reach.
Perez was in 17th place when a water leak forced him to retire. Nevertheless, the Mexican was enthusiastic about his performance but admitted that it was “somewhat track-specific” on the new Madrid circuit.
“I basically had the same pace as Albon throughout the entire race,” commented Perez. “I was always within one to two seconds behind him until our problem. So for the team, it was a really strong weekend in terms of pace. We gave everything and were at the limit when braking. But we went to the absolute limit, and I am satisfied with that.”
Perez moved up from 18th at the start, passing Yuki Tsunoda and Carlos Sainz to 16th. What impressed him most, however, was his pace compared to Alexander Albon, whom he shadowed closely.
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“That is the most positive thing about this weekend: We were on them from the first lap until the end,” added the Mexican. “I think in the second stint we were even faster than Albon. I am really very happy about that. We just have to carry this momentum forward now and make sure the reliability is right. As a team, I am proud that we pushed everything to the limit.”
The data confirms Perez’s impression
Albon and Perez were on the same strategy, which makes the comparison easier: Both started on the medium compound and switched to hard tires during the virtual safety car phase.
In the first stint, Perez was still 0.403 seconds slower per lap. After switching to the harder compound, however, the Cadillac driver was 0.351 seconds faster – until he lost time due to his technical problem and blue flags.
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The sample size is admittedly limited – eleven representative laps in the first stint, eight in the second – but the data shows a clear and consistent picture.
Photo gallery: Madrid: Driver ratings by Marc Surer and the editorial team
Teammate Bottas, on the other hand, spent his afternoon in Madrid at the back of the field and was far less enthusiastic – especially because reliability at Cadillac continues to be a concern. The team has failed to finish eleven times so far in the 2026 season. This is less than Aston Martin (15), but significantly more than the next team in this statistic, Williams (seven).
Bottas dampens optimistic outlook
“We know we have to improve,” says Bottas. “The car is still not robust enough, and we need to make it much faster. Tire wear today showed how much we are still missing – it is really much more than the competition.”
“In the end, we simply lacked a lot of pace. We knew it would be a difficult race, but it was perhaps even tougher than expected,” said the Finn. “We also had to keep the brake temperatures under control throughout the race, so there was quite a lot of ‘lift and coast’ continuously. But we made it to the finish, and that is the positive.”
When asked about Perez being quite satisfied with the duel against Albon on equal terms, Bottas put it into perspective: “At the beginning, we can keep up, we saw that. But the longer the race goes on, the worse the wear gets.”
“For the next race, however, I am more hopeful that we can be there. In Baku, the only high-speed corners are full-throttle sections anyway, otherwise it is slow to medium fast.”
In Azerbaijan, Cadillac therefore wants to improve on its previous best performances – 18th place in qualifying and 14th on Sunday. The lack of downforce of the MAC-26 should not weigh as heavily there.
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