The data from Madrid gives Cadillac cause for hope: Sergio Perez was faster than Alexander Albon on the hard tyres, but Valtteri Bottas warns
A delighted Sergio Perez and a frustrated Valtteri Bottas left Cadillac with mixed feelings after the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid – but race day certainly provided grounds for hope.
Cadillac had been bringing up the rear in Formula 1 so far in the team’s debut season and initially struggled mainly with Aston Martin, before that rival began to make progress. At the Spanish Grand Prix, however, the US team’s race pace was encouraging, even if points remained out of reach.
Perez was in 17th place when a water leak forced him to retire. Nevertheless, the Mexican was delighted with his performance, though he admitted that it had been “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 of him right up until our problem arose. So it was a really strong weekend for the team in terms of pace. We gave it our all and were at the limit when braking. But we pushed right to the absolute limit, and I’m happy with that.”
Perez moved up from 18th on the grid to 16th, overtaking Yuki Tsunoda and Carlos Sainz at the start. What impressed him most, however, was his pace compared to Alexander Albon, whom he followed like a shadow.
“That’s the most positive thing about this weekend: we were right on their heels from the first lap right through to the end,” added the Mexican. “I think we were actually faster than Albon in the second stint. I’m really very happy about that. We just need to carry this momentum forward now and ensure the reliability is there. As a team, I’m 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 the hard tyres during the virtual safety car period.
In the first stint, Perez was still 0.403 seconds slower per lap. However, after switching to the harder compound, the Cadillac driver was 0.351 seconds faster – until he lost time due to his technical problem and blue flags.
Although the sample size is modest – eleven representative laps in the first stint, eight in the second – the data paints a clear and consistent picture.
Team-mate Bottas, on the other hand, spent his afternoon in Madrid at the back of the field and was far less enthusiastic – particularly as reliability continues to be a cause for concern at Cadillac. The team has failed to see the chequered flag eleven times so far in the 2026 season. Whilst that is fewer than Aston Martin (15), it is significantly more than the next-placed team in this statistic, Williams (seven).
Bottas dampens the cautious optimism
“We know we need to improve,” says Bottas. “The car still isn’t robust enough, and we need to make it much faster. Tyre wear today showed just how much we’re still lacking – it’s really a lot more than our rivals.”
“In the end, we simply lacked an awful lot of pace. We knew it would be a difficult race, but it was perhaps even tougher than we’d 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’ going on. But we made it to the finish, which is the positive thing.”
When asked about Perez being quite satisfied with his neck-and-neck battle against Albon, Bottas put it into perspective: “We can keep up at the start, as we’ve seen. But the longer the race goes on, the worse the tyre wear gets.”
“I’m more hopeful, though, that we’ll be in the mix for the next race. In Baku, the only high-speed corners are full-throttle sections anyway; the rest of the circuit is slow to medium-speed.”
In Azerbaijan, therefore, Cadillac is aiming to improve on its best results to date – 18th on the grid in qualifying and 14th on Sunday. There, the lack of downforce from the MAC-26 shouldn’t be such a major factor.