Cadillac is off to a quietly respectable start to life in F1, and the drivers are anticipating “big steps” to enable possible points finishes by the summer break.
Having arrived in F1 as a brand-new entity at the Australian Grand Prix, Cadillac got a car to the finish in Melbourne, before a double finish in China as Valtteri Bottas claimed 13th and Sergio Perez 15th.
Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas target Cadillac progress
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Graeme Lowdon’s team has hit the ground running with solid, if unspectacular, finishes in the two races so far.
Coming into the season, expectations weren’t set high: there was absolutely no ill-advised bravado promising the moon and the stars from the get-go, as has tripped up new arrivals in the past (who can forget BAR’s pre-season predictions of race victories in 1999?)
Just finishing races is an achievement at this point, which isn’t a guarantee for any team, as Aston Martin has been proving, and Cadillac has managed a baseline of reliability that is most useful for a squad that, more than anything, simply needs mileage and understanding in these early days.
In even better news, despite the MAC-26 seemingly being the slowest car of the 11 on track, the 107 per cent qualifying rule isn’t one that seems to be a concern – both cars were within four seconds of the polesitter in Australia, and 3.6 seconds in China, with the quicker car being just over two seconds off in Q1 in Shanghai.
For Perez and Bottas, both making their returns to F1 after a year on the sidelines, the two veterans are well-positioned to capitalise upon the potential of the package under them.
Perez’s return has been met with tremendous excitement by the Mexican fans, whose support of the new team isn’t wavering now that it’s clear there won’t be any early surprises in terms of car performance.
“They know that Cadillac is a project, and that’s why I came here. You know?” Perez said at the Chinese Grand Prix.
“Because if you don’t have the opportunity to be in the best car, it’s a really good project to be part of, something new to be able to use your experience.
“They understand that, and they’re fully behind the team, and we all want to see progress. But yeah, they’re fully behind the team and behind me.”
With the joy of seeing the team become reality still fresh, Perez and Bottas are both aware of the extent of the task that awaits them to haul Cadillac forward, but Perez has earmarked a timeline in which he’s hopeful some success can be achieved.
“I hope, by summer break, we’ve been able to score a few points already. It’s obviously a big task, with the gap that we currently have,” he said, having said that the “honeymoon is over” after the Australian Grand Prix.
“But this team, it’s new, but it’s very different from all the other new teams that have come to the sport.
“This team has all the resources in place and has all the experience as well. There’s a lot of experience in the team. There are a lot of people who have done this for more than 20 years.”
Perez’s optimism accelerates that of Cadillac board member and 1978 F1 World Champion, Mario Andretti, who said that he’s hopeful of seeing the American squad fighting for points by the end of the season.
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That experience will play its part in the advancement of consistent upgrades to the MAC-26, which has started the season in an early sign-off specification.
“In Formula 1, unfortunately, things don’t come quickly, but there are a lot of areas where we will be making big steps in the coming races, operationally and even on the strategy,” Perez said.
“The big one is aero development. But I think it’s going to come. It’s going to be coming quickly, hopefully.”
Bottas agreed with Perez’s optimism, saying that upgrades will come on a regular basis through the next few months, starting with updates this weekend in Japan.
“There’s still a gap to the cars ahead, which we now need to start working on closing,” he said.
“It’s not an easy task, but there’s a lot in the pipeline for the next races. So now we kind of see where we are, and it’s pretty much like we expected.
“We’re planning to have something for almost every race now, so for sure, something for Japan, and then hopefully something bigger after the spring break.”
Given that Cadillac is also having to work on operational areas that are second-nature for the established teams, such as departmental integration, working processes, and general understanding of how everything gels together, the upcoming month-long gap between Japan and Miami will help the new outfit iron out some of the wrinkles.
“I think it’s actually quite beneficial for us. We have more time to sort things out, because we still have issues,” Bottas said.
“We still haven’t had a trouble-free weekend, and also more time to get more performance. Everyone has been working flat out for months now. So actually, maybe some people have a bit of a breather as well, would be good.”
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