F1 – Cadillac: the MAC-26 struggles in high temperatures
The debut car from the American team showed its first significant signs of difficulty.
Sergio Pérez openly admitted that the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya confirmed the weaknesses of Cadillac and its MAC-26 challenger. The Mexican driver explained that the high-speed nature of the circuit, combined with the elevated track temperatures, highlighted exactly what the team is still lacking in terms of overall performance.
The difficulties faced by Cadillac
During the race weekend in Spain, the team struggled particularly with tyre management and a general lack of race pace. Only one of the two cars managed to reach the chequered flag: Pérez’s Cadillac, which finished in fourteenth place, three laps down on the leaders. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas, on the other hand, was forced to retire after just 15 laps because of overheating issues.
Bottas had already endured a difficult Saturday after an incident during the third free practice session, when he ran into the gravel at Turn 10 following a brake problem, an incident that also triggered a red flag interruption.
The Finnish driver commented on his retirement by saying: “We had to stop the car, it was a precaution. We saw an overheating issue again. That’s all, unfortunately. It was quite a short race for me”.
He added: “It was a difficult weekend, with a lot of problems, and now we have two consecutive race weekends. But the positive thing is that the pit stop was excellent and in qualifying we seemed a bit closer, but we still need to work on our race pace”.
Sergio Pérez’s comments
Pérez began the weekend at a disadvantage after missing the first free practice session, which was handed to reserve driver Colton Herta in accordance with Formula 1’s rookie driver regulations. Despite that setback, the Mexican managed to recover several positions during the opening phase of the race.
He explained: “It wasn’t a very easy start, we had a lot of wheel spin, we lost a few positions, we got them back around lap one, but from that point onwards we were stuck behind Alex Albon for the entire first stint”.
Speaking about tyre performance, Pérez added: “The hard tyre was really bad for us, we lost ground and then with the blue flags, the lapping situations and so on, we lost a bit more ground compared to the Williams”.
Pérez concluded by admitting that the team’s struggles had not come as a surprise: “I think we always knew that Barcelona would show what we are missing and I think we have some work to do. We have a good idea of what is happening and today we confirmed it”.
Cadillac and the MAC-26 endured a particularly challenging weekend, marked by recurring technical issues such as overheating and a lack of competitiveness over long-run pace, especially when running on the hard compound tyres. Pérez highlighted how the layout of the Spanish circuit, with its many high-speed corners combined with hot conditions, acted as an important benchmark, revealing the areas where the team will need to focus its development efforts over the coming races.
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