The 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP was not a calm one, several drivers and teams faced unreliability throughout the race; Sergio Pérez was not one of them. He finished the race in P14.
Teammate Valtteri Bottas on the other hand, was forced to retire. Cadillac has not managed to secure a single point in the championship so far.
Speaking in the print media pen, the Mexican driver seemed confident that the team’s progress would soon be seen on track.
Pérez on his lethal overtaking and Cadillac’s issues throughout the weekend
Following a pass on Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard retired moments later as Cadillac had superior pace; the Mexican had made an extra stop so his speed was far superior.
From there, it was a quiet Sunday as he had nobody to race with.
“Yeah, pretty lonely race. I think once we overtook Fernando [Alonso], it was a lonely race from then on.”
Both Cadillac drivers qualified near the back, but they were a second clear of Aston Martin.
Thanks to the lack of downforce, they could not fight with the lower end midfield cars in the race because of worsetyre degradation.
Pérez shared that the team is gathering all information ahead of the following Grands Prix, noting that it might have been positive for the team to experience these issues at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya..
“I think whenever we have a stint longer than 15 laps, we seem to struggle a lot with a massive cliff. We understand pretty well where that’s coming from, and we have a good idea on where we need to fix it and how, but it will just take a bit of races from now on.
“The good thing is that we know, and obviously Barcelona is the greatest place to show you where you are lacking, so that was positive for us.”
Positive Pérez predicts improvements by 2026 F1 British GP
With every step they take and every move they make, Cadillac is gathering significant information. Bottas faced multiple retirements this year, while Pérez provided the team with full race distances across the past weekends.
“Definitely, it’s good information for us, for the team, and we just have to make sure that we are able to come up on top. We are bringing a good big package for Austria, I hope that will bring us back into the midfield group.”
As Pérez mentioned, Cadillac struggled enormously with tyre degradation at the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP.
Ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, the American squad has plenty of work to do on this weakness. However, the updated package will not solve things at the Red Bull Ring.
“No, that will not solve it. We will improve it though, but I think we’re looking forward to, hopefully Silverstone will be the place that we will solve it.”
