For the time being, Cadillac is in something of a no man’s land on pure pace between the midfield and Aston Martin, but there were signs of encouragement after its Austria disaster. Sergio Perez was on occasion in the mix with the Haas drivers, while Valtteri Bottas finally got to the finish after three successive retirements, giving Cadillac its first double finish since Miami two months ago.
The cooler conditions and circuit layout masked some of the weaknesses that hindered Cadillac in Austria but it was a good response from the team and allows them a chance to fully assess the new components brought to the MAC-26 a couple of weekends ago.
“It was a good race and probably one of our best so far this season,” Perez said. “We had a really good start and were fighting to hold the Haas behind. There is some work to do, but we have to keep pushing and hopefully the next package of upgrades will bring us up. With just a little bit more speed we will really be in the mix with the midfield teams and then we can start to challenge a bit more.”
Added Bottas: “Number one thing is that we finished the race for the first time after three events with DNFs which is positive. It’s also the first race distance we’ve finished with the upgrades so there’s a lot we can learn from both cars on how to optimize the package going forward. I think we have improved our pace overall.”
Cadillac’s result came on a weekend in which it celebrated the Fourth of July with a special one-off livery and held a US-themed cookout outside of its motorhome for paddock personnel, complete with Cadillac-branded burgers, fries, and hotdogs. Autoweek can vouch for the quality of Cadillac’s catering.
U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.