Valtteri Bottas had one of his worst races in F1 as the Finn was almost lapped by Cadillac teammate Sergio Pérez in the 2026 Singapore GP. The gap at the end was 96 seconds.
On the ninth row together because of penalties for Hadjar, Russell and the Astons, the Mexican started softs, whilst the 10-time race winner was on mediums. While Pérez managed to hold off Alonso and Stroll for the first 20 laps before boxing for mediums, Bottas was over a second a lap slower than his teammate and was way off the back.
With the driver of car #11 doing low 1:41s in the first five laps and then consistently in the 1:40s from there on in, the former Mercedes man was doing high 1:41s and low 1:42s. That meant Pérez stayed ahead after pitting.
The theme continued once Bottas got on the softs. While the former Red Bull driver did pit under the VSC to clear Lance Stroll’s car for another set of softs and had a 10-lap offset, the difference in lap times was far bigger than the tyre delta. Pérez was in the mid 1:38s and low 1:39, with his Finnish teammate struggling in the 1:40s.
Pérez’s fastest lap in the 2026 F1 Singapore GP was a 1:38.574, Bottas’ was a 1:40.171. It was a difference that reflected their average gap per lap in the race.
Valtteri Bottas admits he had no real speed in the 2026 F1 Singapore GP
Earlier in the year, and even as far as Hungary, Cadillac struggled with brakes overheating, leading to quite a few retirements.
The Finn revealed in the print media pen that he was doing some lift and coast in parts of the race to save the brakes and make sure he got to the flag.
Nonetheless, Valtteri Bottas conceded he simply lacked any kind of speed in the 2026 F1 Singapore GP. His only real complaint was the ride quality of his MAC-26.
“Yeah, for sure some of it in the first stint was again the brake management. I had to start increasing the lift and coast on lap 2, but it doesn’t explain [the lack of pace].
“Eventually things stabilised and I didn’t need to do any lift and coast for a while, then it came back.
“No pace at all in the first stint, like, talking about a second a lap. Pretty much the same story all through the race.
“I was getting all the feedback from the team where I could potentially try and gain lap time. I was trying everything I could. If I’m lacking pace on the entry or mid-corner, then I can do that, but then I lose in the exit or some other phase of the corner.
“So yeah, a bit of an odd one. The only thing I can say is that the ride was really poor today. Like a step change from something. We’ll have a look.”
Looking ahead to the United States GP next time out, Bottas referenced his struggles and felt like Cadillac did not get the maximum out of the car at the 2026 F1 Singapore GP.
“It somehow feels like we underperformed here a bit.”
“We were way off the pace in the race.”
