Was Cadillac “faster” than Williams in Madring F1 race?

Setembro 16, 2026 lojamais44@gmail.com

Cadillac has been a backmarker in Formula 1 so far in the team’s maiden season, battling Aston Martin early on before the latter’s progress.

However, the team’s race pace was encouraging in the Spanish Grand Prix, even though points remain elusive.

Sergio Perez was running 17th when he suffered a terminal water leak but was thrilled with his performance, which he admitted was “a bit track-specific” at the new Madring.

“I was pretty much the same pace as [Alexander] Albon all the way through,” Perez commented. “I was within a second or two until we had the issue. So a really strong weekend for the team in terms of pace. We pushed everything, we were on the limit with the brakes, but we pushed to the very limit, and [I’m] happy with that.”

Perez made the most of a lively start to jump from 18th to 16th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda and Carlos Sainz, but what struck him the most was his pace relative to Albon, whom he was shadowing.

Alexander Albon, Williams, leads Sergio Perez, Cadillac

Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images

“That’s the most positive thing of the weekend: we were with them since lap one all the way through the end,” the Mexican added. “We were actually, I think, faster than Albon on the second stint, so really happy with that. And we just have to keep this momentum going and make sure that we get the reliability, but as a team I’m proud that we pushed everything to the limit.”

Albon and Perez were on the same strategy, which makes the comparison easier – both of them started on the medium compound and switched to hards during the virtual safety car.

In their first stint, Perez was 0.403s slower per lap, but once they moved to the harder compound, the Cadillac driver became 0.351s quicker – until he started losing time to both his technical issue and blue flags.

The samples are rather small – 11 representative laps in the first stint, eight in the second – but the data is clear and consistent.

Team-mate Valtteri Bottas, however, spent his Madrid afternoon at the back of the pack and was far less enthused, especially with reliability still a problem at Cadillac. The team has suffered 11 retirements/non-starts so far in 2026 – noticeably fewer than Aston Martin’s 15 but many more than the next squad on this list, Williams (seven).

“We know we need to improve,” the Finn nervously chuckled. “The car is still not robust enough, and we need to make it a lot faster. And the deg today highlights how much we’re lacking, it’s like way more than the competition.

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

“In the end, we were lacking a lot of pace. We knew it was going to be a tough race, but it was maybe even tougher than I thought. We also did have to manage all through the race the brake temps, so quite a bit of lift-and-coast all the way. But we finished, that’s a positive.”

When Perez’s satisfaction with challenging Albon pace-wise was brought up, Bottas nuanced: “In the beginning we can be there, we’ve seen, but as the race progresses, the deg gets worse.

“But actually for the next event, I’m more hopeful that we can be there. Baku, the only high-speed corners, they are flat out; otherwise it’s slow- or medium-speed.”

Cadillac will therefore aim to improve on its best results so far – 18th in grand prix qualifying, 14th on Sundays – in Azerbaijan, where the MAC-26’s lack of downforce shouldn’t be as costly.