– If Cadillac aimed for a respectable Formula 1 debut, then it has largely achieved it: both Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas saw the checkered flag in two consecutive races in China and Japan.
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In Suzuka, Perez and Bottas beat the struggling Aston Martins and thus stayed away from the back row of the grid. The duo was about 2.3 seconds behind the lead in Q1 and one second behind the rest of the broad 2026 midfield. This was a relatively encouraging step forward, but at the same time revealed the next challenge the team now faces.
Cadillac has climbed its first peak, only to find that an equally formidable peak awaits on the other side. Making the jump onto the 2026 grid was only the beginning; now the team must effectively beat its rivals in development to join the fight for the midfield.
First upgrade successful, now comes Miami
The team brought its first new parts to the start in Japan – a revised diffuser for more rear downforce. Nevertheless, it still needs to find over a second on teams like Alpine, Williams, the Racing Bulls, and Haas. Cadillac is preparing further upgrades for its home debut in Miami, but so is everyone else.
“It was very promising, but on the other hand, we also look at the lap times and see that we need to develop,” says Perez. “Developing means outperforming our rivals in the rate of development, which is a pretty difficult task in Formula 1.”
“This is the biggest challenge Cadillac faces as a team because these teams have been here for a while. We really have to bring our best performance, and now is the time when we all have to prove that we can do this as a team,” said the Mexican.
“But I believe we have a good structure, the team is well-positioned, and hopefully we can make significant steps when we start development. I think we are on schedule at the moment. It’s still early, so I’m happy with where we are right now.”
Perez continued: “At the same time, we made great progress from the first to the second race, and that’s exactly what I want to continue to see. We all want to see massive progress and we want to close the gap from now on.”
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Perez expects Cadillac to be the team that “can get the most out of this break,” as it also needs to optimize other areas, such as trackside operations and systems. A little over a month ago, the team had never run two Formula 1 cars at the same time.
Symonds “confident that we can deliver”
Cadillac’s technical advisor Pat Symonds is confident that the US team – which is largely operating out of Silverstone this year while a flagship headquarters is being built in Fishers, Indiana – has the right tools to upgrade the car despite its status as a start-up team.
“I think we have a very robust process for that,” says Symonds. “That is actually very impressive with the team. We have the budget for it. Within the budget cap, we know what we have to do. We have already planned a fairly aggressive development program. I am quite confident that we can deliver that.”
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The first upgrades in Japan, just three races into the season, gave a small preview of this. According to Symonds, the new diffuser worked as expected and delivered more rear downforce without upsetting the car’s balance.
“All we are trying to do is simply put more downforce on the car,” he says. “And like most, we want to ensure that the rear load remains consistent. We had a good balance between high-speed and slow sections, as well as a good balance between low and high fuel on board.”
“So if we can get a bit more downforce on the car now, I think we can start to push a little bit into that midfield.”
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