Sergio Perez may have finished only 15th in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but the Cadillac driver came away from Baku encouraged by his own performance, describing it as one of his strongest weekends at the circuit. The Mexican nevertheless acknowledged that Cadillac continues to lack the pace and straight-line speed required to fight consistently with its Formula 1 rivals.
Cadillac’s difficult debut season continued in Azerbaijan, with the American team still the only constructor yet to record a top-10 race finish. Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas experienced very different races in Baku, with Sergio Perez taking pride in extracting the maximum from his car while Valtteri Bottas ended the Grand Prix in the barriers on the final lap.
Cadillac still searching for its first F1 top-10 finish
The prospect of scoring a first points finish remains distant for Cadillac. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix provided further confirmation of how demanding the team’s first Formula 1 season has been, with neither Sergio Perez nor Valtteri Bottas able to break into the top 10.
Sergio Perez nevertheless emerged from the weekend with several positives. The former Red Bull driver crossed the line in 15th place, but felt the quality of his own performance was considerably stronger than the final classification suggested.
Sergio Perez proud of his Azerbaijan GP performance
“It was one of my best weekends here in Baku in terms of performance; I’m satisfied with how I drove,” Sergio Perez said. “We found ourselves fighting against cars that were one or two seconds faster than us – thanks to the overtake mode – and we still managed to stay with them in the first stint.”
“Considering the pace I was running at, if I had made even one mistake in a corner I would have ended up in the wall; that’s why, when you drive a race like that, you feel a great sense of pride. From that point of view, it was a positive weekend, a good step forward.”
However, Sergio Perez was clear about the areas still limiting Cadillac’s competitiveness. The Mexican identified both overall pace and straight-line performance as major weaknesses, with aerodynamic drag leaving the car particularly vulnerable.
“We’re just lacking pace and top speed: we suffer too much from drag on the straights and end up losing ground. We would need another half a second or a second to stay with them; on the straights, I’m an easy target.”
“We remain optimistic for the next rounds, hoping that we can continue to improve. There are no major upgrades planned, so I imagine it will be a difficult end to the season, but we will continue working hard.”
“From an operational point of view, I’m pushing to get the maximum out of every weekend and I think the direction is the right one, with constant improvements; we just need to keep pushing much harder as a team and the results will come.”
Valtteri Bottas crashes on final lap in Baku
Valtteri Bottas endured a very different Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Finnish driver hit the barriers at Turn 15 on the final lap and was unable to give a definitive explanation for exactly what had happened.
“It was a long and difficult day. We didn’t have the right pace and I was only able to fight with Fernando Alonso, which cost us time,” Valtteri Bottas said.
“Towards the end of the race I locked up at Turn 1 and went long; I think the systems got a little confused because of the extra distance travelled. Then I had a big lock-up at Turn 15 and, when I braked, only the front brakes worked; I had the feeling that the rear system was no longer recovering energy.”
“Apart from that, we were quite a long way from the leaders, so there is a lot to analyse ahead of next week, given that it was a somewhat unusual race.”
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