Despite visible progress, Sergio Pérez remains lucid about Cadillac F1 Team’s situation at the start of the season: the Mexican believes his team still lags significantly behind the midfield.
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A significant deficit, estimated at nearly one second per lap, is already directing all the American team’s hopes toward the upgrade package expected in Miami.
In Suzuka, Cadillac nevertheless showed encouraging signs, particularly in qualifying: Pérez and his teammate Valtteri Bottas managed to outpace the two Aston Martin drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, confirming steady progress since Melbourne.
Significant performance deficit
But in the race, reality proved harsher. Pérez finished 17th, staying on the lead lap only thanks to the safety car intervention. At the finish, the gap to direct benchmarks like Carlos Sainz and Franco Colapinto reached nearly 27 seconds, with a deficit of about one second per lap over the duration of the stint. This observation is also visible in pure lap times, where Cadillac lags about 1.1 seconds behind its direct rivals.
Pérez does not try to hide this reality: when he was racing in the pack, notably against the Williams and Alpine, he noticed that the gap wasn’t necessarily obvious over a few corners, but that his competitors managed to extract pace consistently, tour après tour.
“They find pace again and again,” he emphasizes, highlighting a structural deficit rather than a simple temporary lack of performance.
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The technical diagnosis is already well identified. The main weakness of the car, the MAC-26, concerns the lack of aerodynamic downforce: “The balance isn’t too bad, but we lack downforce,” explains Pérez, indicating that this deficit directly impacts overall performance, particularly in high-speed sequences and tire management.
Energy management to be reviewed
Added to this is another area of work: energy management. The Mexican observes notable differences with some teams, which seem to exploit their deployment more effectively. A key area in the context of the new regulations, where energy optimization plays a central role in race performance.
Despite everything, Pérez notes a positive dynamic. He emphasizes that the team is progressing at every Grand Prix and that, for the first time this season, the Japanese weekend went relatively smoothly, apart from some deployment issues in qualifying.
The goal is now clear: close this gap of about one second to join the midfield battle. And for that, all eyes are on Miami, where Cadillac will introduce a major upgrade for its first home appearance, in front of its fans. For Pérez, this event will represent a real turning point: “It will be the biggest test for the team.”
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