Cadillac

Pre-season baseline — brand new 11th team, Ferrari customer PU

F1's first new team entry in years. Bottas's fastest time was 3.3s off the best (The Race), but Cadillac was 'not in cut-adrift or last-place territory' which was a relief. Managed 1,700+ km in testing, focused on refining balance and setup. Ferrari customer PU provides some straightLineSpeed (4.2) and energyRecovery (3.5) uplift — Bottas clocked 310.2 km/h at Melbourne FP1 speed trap (3rd fastest, FIA data), showing decent PU straight-line potential despite the weak chassis. Double Q1 exit at Melbourne, Perez P16, Bottas DNF. Perez (offset -0.3, effective 3.0) and Bottas (offset -0.2, effective 3.1) are both returning drivers after time away from F1, adding to the challenge. 'Cadillac's main weakness' was overall aero downforce deficit (Motorsport.com).

Round 1 baseline — by far the slowest, debut team struggles with pace and reliability

Clear backmarker. Perez P18 (+4.087 from pole), Bottas P19 (+4.726) in Q1. Race pace 87.738 (+4.240) — 2+ seconds slower than next-worst. 'Visibly nervous in technical sections Turns 12-14.' Bottas retired L15 (fuel system), triggering VSC. Perez FP1 fuel system + FP2 hydraulic leak. Bottas 307.7 km/h quali speed trap (4th!) shows Ferrari PU baseline speed despite weak chassis. Sources: Motorsport.com, Speedcafe, The Race, FIA speed trap PDFs.

Round 2 — first two-car finish, genuine progress, diffuser upgrade

Historic milestone: Cadillac's first two-car finish in F1 (Bottas P13, Perez P15). Started from the back of the grid and raced established teams throughout. Diffuser winglet cascade upgrade provides small aero benefit. Race pace 3.613s off Mercedes is still distant but improved from R1 gap. Bottas sustained floor damage from Perez collision but completed race distance. Ferrari PU running reliably in Cadillac package. Sources: Formula1.com, The Race, Cadillac.

Round 3 — first lead-lap finish (Perez P17), beats both Aston Martins, new diffuser

Perez P17 was Cadillac's first lead-lap finish in a Grand Prix — a milestone. Beat both Aston Martins. Bottas P19 (+1 lap). Race pace +3.283s (faster than Aston Martin's +3.668s). New diffuser (fence redesign + central optimization). Speed trap 329 km/h (7th, Ferrari PU). Both cars finished. Sources: GPFans, Formula1.com, ReadMotorsport upgrades, FastF1 data.

Round 6 (Miami) — first proper upgrade package (9 components), beats both Aston Martins again

Cadillac's first major upgrade package as a new team: new front wing endplate, updated front-wing flap profiles, revised mirror stays, reprofiled bargeboard, new floor + diffuser, rear suspension fairings, spine/corner improvements, exhaust geometry revision. Race pace gap +3.716s was actually slowest on grid — behind Aston Martin (+2.991s) despite Aston bringing zero chassis upgrades. PER P16, BOT P18 in classification, interleaved with Aston Martins (ALO P15, STR P17). Honest read: the 9-piece upgrade improved one-lap pace but did not translate to race trim. Sprint qualifying gap to Q2 cutoff closed from 1.3s → 0.3s — meaningful two-session signal. Still slowest in speed traps (PER/BOT bringing up the rear), so straight-line claim is not warranted. Modest peakDownforce +0.1 reflects the new floor + diffuser + bargeboard contributions; conservative on a single weekend without broader fit confirmation. No incidents. Sources: The Race upgrade analysis, F1i speed trap data.

Round 7 (Canada) — debut major package, PER race speed trap P2 + suspension DNF, BOT P16

Cadillac deployed a major debut aero package (brake duct, diffuser, front corner per Motorsport.com — note the prior round-up speculation about an all-new rear suspension was UNCONFIRMED). PER race speed trap was P2 around 340 km/h class (Ferrari PU + low-DF rear wing helps). BOT finished P16 (4 laps down). PER DNF lap 39 — front-right suspension failure described as 'bizarre/terrifying' in coverage. Logged as 'monitoring' — first Cadillac mechanical of 2026, and the speculative link to newly-deployed components is NOT confirmed by sources. straightLineSpeed +0.1 (smaller than the headline; the 340 km/h figure isn't verified across multiple sources), peakDownforce +0.1 (new aero), activeAeroEfficiency +0.1 (new rear wing context). Reliability −0.2 (1st-failure cap). Race pace 79.095 still +3.5s off fastest — package didn't move them off last-but-Aston.

Round 8 (Monaco) - BOT brake failure; 2nd mechanical in 2 rounds -> pattern

BOT DNF lap 15 with a brake failure; PER ran as high as P10 before a standing-restart drive-through + 10s dropped him to P15 (procedural). reliability -0.3 and the incident is flagged 'pattern': Cadillac's 2nd mechanical failure in 2 rounds (R7 PER front-right suspension, R8 BOT brakes). Brake failure is team-package, not Ferrari-PU. No car-DNA change (slowest race pace, Monaco-specific). Pace re-derived by pipeline. Sources: FastF1 round-08.

Round 9 (Barcelona) - best relative weekend (out-qualified Aston by >1s); ~15-lap race deg cliff; brake recurrence + overheating DNF

peakDownforce +0.3 / highSpeedCorners +0.2: early-season aero-load deficit 'eradicated' (The Race) - genuinely racing Haas/Williams in Q1 and out-qualifying Aston Martin by >1s, with two deployed circuit-relevant upgrades (cooling louvres, straight-mode rear-wing fairing). tyreDegradation -0.2: race pace still falls off 'a massive cliff' after ~15-lap stints (Perez) - highest raw avg deg on the grid (0.192), forced 3-stops. Reliability -0.4: BOT FP3 brake-pedal loss (red flag; same-system recurrence of Monaco brake trouble) AND BOT overheating retirement L15 - fourth mechanical in three rounds, thread escalated to systemic; raised from -0.3 on verification. Net -0.2 after re-center. Grid reliability re-center +0.2 applied to all 11 teams (incident penalties pushed the grid reliability average to 4.33, breaching the +/-0.5 band; re-centered to 4.53, relative gaps preserved). Pipeline re-derives qualiPace/racePace from committed raw round-09; no manual pace override (dry, representative weekend). Sources: FastF1 round-09; The Race; RacingNews365; GPFans; Wikipedia.

Round 10 (Austria) - double brake-fire DNF (L2/L4) from the new brake-cooling package; out-qualified Aston by ~1s again

Biggest part count on the grid (10 components incl. reprofiled sidepod, floor bib/leading edge, diffuser, beam wing, updated brake cooling) deployed. peakDownforce +0.2: out-qualified Aston Martin by ~1s with both cars (Q19/Q20), continuing the R9 aero recovery; low confidence - race pace data near zero. Reliability -0.8 pre-re-center: BOT brake fire L2 + PER identical brake fire L4 (new brake-cooling hardware overwhelmed by 35C heat + traffic) = same-system third-plus event (R8 brakes, R9 FP3 brake-pedal, R10 both cars), plus Friday build-error floor fire (BOT) and PER electrical gremlins requiring a full ECU replacement; softened from the strict -1.0 systemic step because the failing part is a bolt-on cooling package with a stated fix path (Silverstone priority: finish), per the R9 fix-announced softening precedent. Net -0.6 after re-center. Overall -0.2. Grid reliability re-center +0.2 applied to all 11 teams (R10 incident penalties pushed the grid reliability average to 4.36, breaching the +/-0.5 band; re-centered to 4.56, relative gaps preserved). Pipeline re-derives qualiPace/racePace from committed raw round-10; no manual pace override (dry, representative weekend). Sources: FastF1 round-10; Motorsport.com; 123helmets; F1.com.

Round 11 (Silverstone) - first clean mechanical weekend since R7; genuine trap-speed signal

Most encouraging weekend yet: both cars classified the full 52 laps (PER P15, BOT P17), BOT out-qualified COL in Q1 (91.227 vs 91.321), raced with the Haas cars and finished ~1.7s/lap clear of Aston. straightLineSpeed +0.2: PER P7 in the SQ speed trap (318 km/h, level with VER) - trap-sourced; sized below the single-session cap because the source's team mapping needed manual correction. First weekend without a Cadillac mechanical failure since R7 - systemic flag retained, no recovery credit under the decay model; +0.1 is the grid re-center only. PER sprint lap-2 contact with ALO (10s, finished last) - driver error, no car implication. One-off July 4th liveries; no upgrades registered. F1.com: improved pace 'gaining on the midfield'. Grid reliability re-center +0.1 applied to all 11 teams (R11 incident penalties pushed the grid reliability average to 4.45, breaching the +/-0.5 band; re-centered to 4.55, relative gaps preserved). Sources: FastF1 round-11; F1.com; Cadillac F1; Scuderia Fans.