How Cadillac fared on its Formula 1 debut

468 days after its Formula 1 entry was approved on 25 November 2024, Cadillac took part in its maiden Formula 1 race, the Australian Grand Prix, on Sunday.

Sergio Perez drove the Ferrari-powered MAC-26 to 16th place, three laps down on race winner George Russell, while Valtteri Bottas retired on lap 16.

F1’s first new team since 2016 had a slow but steady start to life in the world championship, completing all nine pre-season testing days – unlike Aston Martin and Williams – and gathering 3,935km’s worth of data.

Perez and Bottas qualified down in 18th and 19th respectively on Saturday in Melbourne, with the Mexican 3.1s off the pace and 1.4s away from Oliver Bearman, the slowest driver to reach Q2.

The three drivers who were outqualified by the Cadillacs – Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll – simply set no lap time for various reasons.

It was therefore always going to be a tough race for the American outfit, with its only realistic rival being Aston Martin performance-wise – but Aston’s Honda power unit trouble ruled it out from completing the whole race before the weekend even began.

In the end, Bottas retired even earlier than the Astons. The Finn had to pit for a new steering wheel before a fuel system problem proved terminal on lap 16.

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing (Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images)

“It was a real shame actually, because clearly there's a steering wheel problem and that's really extremely frustrating because obviously we don't make steering wheels,” team principal Graeme Lowdon told Motorsport. “And so to be let down by that is just not great. So, we need to look into that and get that improved.”

Meanwhile, Perez didn’t pit during the first virtual safety car intervention, which briefly put him in the mix with cars on new tyres. He had a feisty battle with Liam Lawson, which utterly annoyed the Kiwi given the pair’s history.

But Perez’ lack of pace was much too substantial to overcome. The veteran finished 16th with a 2m28s deficit to Pierre Gasly, who scored the last available point in 10th.

“We decided to go from a one-stop strategy to a two because we might as well, there was no threat from behind by that stage,” Lowdon explained about Perez switching to softs on lap 43. “Both Astons had failed or maybe even one of them had stopped by then. So, there was no risk behind. And it just made sense to do that, give Checo a sense on the other tyre.”

All in all, despite Cadillac’s modest performance level, the consensus within the team is a sense of respectability and, therefore, achievement.

“We've seen again, it's not easy,” Lowdon insisted. “There were a few people who didn't even take the start. So really satisfied that we got one car home. Obviously, we need to work on pace, that's a given thing with a new team.”

Graeme Lowdon, Cadillac F1 Team Team Principal (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images)

“Overall, we were there,” Bottas commented. “We were racing with some cars. We keep Aston behind. Not like initially falling miles back. So that's encouraging to see.

“So, overall, even though I'm standing here [early in the media pen after retiring], I'm still proud of the whole team. And I'm very happy to be back. This is part of the learning curve. We've just got to keep solving issues, and the only way is up from here.”

“The first step is done,” Perez added. “As a team, completing the race was incredible. It's a shame Valtteri couldn't complete it, but overall it was a great one. A great recovery for the weekend, we started with a lot of issues.” Perez completed just 16 laps on Friday due to a fuel system problem and a hydraulic leak.

“But I think from now on, obviously honeymoon is over. Now, we need to do big steps forward, we need to put a plan on the team to move along and close the gap, which I believe we can do. But obviously we are all very competitive inside the team, and that's the attitude we need from now on, to be able to close the gap and aim for something big this year.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing (Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images)

Closing the gap won’t be easy. Perez finished nearly three laps down on both Ferraris, so Cadillac’s lack of performance clearly lies with downforce and mechanical grip, not its power unit. “We're just losing in all the corner apexes, we can't carry enough speed,” Bottas pointed out on Saturday. But the deficit to the midfield teams is large enough that Cadillac won’t catch up anytime soon.

“Today was the longest [stint Cadillac has done],” Lowdon pointed out. “We got so much extra data. It would have been absolutely great to get both cars back, primarily for both drivers, but also for the team and the amount of information, the amount of data that we could get. But again, I think for a first ever grand prix, just getting one of these super complex machines home is a great result.

“Obviously we want to get both home – although I'm fairly sure that the problem on Valtteri's car was something a bit unusual, and we'll get to the bottom of that. But yes, get both home and start adding the pace. I think we can see a route map to that. It's not something that you can do overnight, because obviously everybody else is developing as well. But I genuinely believe we will get there and we'll start closing in.”

Additional reporting by Ronald Vording