Cadillac’s Debut Season in Data: Where the Gap Really Is

Cadillac is F1’s first new team since Haas in 2016, and the 11th team on the grid. With five races left, it is the only team yet to score a point. Valtteri Bottas’s 13th place in China is still its best result.

But “no points” doesn’t explain much on its own. The data shows a team losing time in three distinct areas, and one of them has cost far more than the others.

Cadillac’s 2026 Season in Numbers

• Points: 0 (11th in the Constructors’ Championship)
• Best finish: 13th, Bottas (China)
• Best qualifying: 18th (Pérez at Monaco, Bottas at Silverstone)
• Q2 appearances: none by the summer break
• Retirements: 13 in total, 8 for Bottas and 5 for Pérez
• Nearest miss: 10th for Pérez at Monaco, before a post-race penalty dropped him to 15th

The Cadillac team page in our Archive has the full team history and lineup.

Gap #1: Downforce

Both drivers say the same thing about the car’s main weakness: it lacks downforce. “The main one is load, it’s where we are lacking the most,” Sergio Pérez said early in the season. “Balance itself is not too bad, it’s just that we are lacking the load.”

That deficit is mostly at the rear of the car. Less downforce means less grip, especially through medium- and high-speed corners. It also limits how teams can set up the car: with little rear downforce, engineers can’t trade some of it away for a better balance or more straight-line speed.

Part of the reason is timing. The MAC-26’s concept was signed off earlier than rivals’ cars, because the team was still being built. That gives Cadillac the most room for development, but it also meant starting from further behind.

How it shows up in the data: A downforce deficit shows up as lower minimum speeds in corners and earlier braking, not as a top-speed deficit. In the Interactive Telemetry Viewer, compare a Cadillac lap with a midfield car such as a Williams or Alpine through a fast corner sequence. The gap should be biggest in the corners, not on the straights.

Gap #2: Energy Deployment

The second weakness is less visible. In the early races, Pérez estimated he was “losing around three [tenths] to half a second every single lap” through energy deployment problems. He said Cadillac was “deploying differently” from other teams.

That matters a lot under the 2026 rules. Close to half of the car’s power is electrical, so how and where the battery’s energy is spent affects lap time directly. Our Overtake Mode and energy deployment guide explains the system.

Cadillac uses a customer Ferrari power unit and gearbox, and the Ferrari engine itself isn’t the problem. The difficulty is getting it to work well with a brand-new team’s own software and settings. Ferrari’s frequent software updates put extra strain on a supply relationship that is still settling. Cadillac’s own General Motors power unit isn’t due until 2029.

How it shows up in the data: Energy deployment problems show up on the straights. Look for a speed line that flattens or drops earlier than a rival’s while the throttle is still at 100%. That’s the sign of the battery running out before the end of the straight.

Gap #3: Reliability (the Biggest One)

The single biggest cost to Cadillac’s season is reliability. With 13 retirements across the two cars, Bottas’s eighth came in Austin. Only Lance Stroll, with 11, has more retirements than Bottas.

The causes vary widely:

• Fuel system faults, which ended Bottas’s race in Australia. Pérez also had a fuel-system problem in China but still finished.
• Brake fires on several occasions
• Overheating, which ended both cars’ races early in Austria and Hungary
• Suspension failures, which caused Pérez’s retirements in Canada and Belgium

Every retirement costs more than points. A car that doesn’t finish brings back no race data, and for a team learning its car from scratch, that slows development. It also means Cadillac has rarely had both cars at the finish to compare their pace.

How Big Is the Gap?

The early numbers show how far behind Cadillac started:

• Qualifying: In the opening rounds, Cadillac’s best lap was 2.4–3.9% off the pace, about 1.3 seconds away from the cutoff to reach Q2.
• Race pace: 5.2% off in Australia and 4.7% in China.

By mid-season, the gap was closing. At Silverstone, Bottas qualified about 0.5 seconds behind Esteban Ocon’s Haas and ahead of one Alpine. In Japan, Cadillac outqualified both Aston Martins for the first time. An upgrade at the Austrian GP brought new sidepods and a new floor, though the results didn’t improve as much as the team had hoped.

Bottas vs Pérez: The Teammate Battle

Inside the team, Pérez has the edge:

• Qualifying: Pérez 10, Bottas 8
• Races where both finished: Pérez 6, Bottas 1
• Fastest team lap in a race: Pérez 14 times, Bottas 3

These numbers need care. Cadillac often runs different strategies on its two cars to learn faster, which affects head-to-head comparisons. Our guide to calculating true qualifying gaps and race pace explains how to correct for that, and you can compare both drivers in our Teammate Wars tool.

Pérez has called 2026 “without a doubt one of my best years” in terms of confidence and leadership. Cadillac has extended his contract. Bottas’s seat for 2027 is not yet confirmed, and the team is considering an American driver. Test driver Colton Herta has run several FP1 sessions this year, including Austin in Pérez’s car, and was scheduled to drive Bottas’s car in Mexico FP1 to earn the last super licence point he needs.

How It Compares With Past New Teams

The comparison depends on which new teams you look at. Haas scored points in its very first race in 2016, but it started with a close technical partnership with Ferrari. The three teams that joined in 2010 (Lotus, Virgin and HRT) went their whole first seasons without a point.

Cadillac sits between the two. It’s closer to the midfield than the 2010 teams were to theirs, but it hasn’t had Haas’s head start.

What’s Next

Cadillac’s best chances of a first point are races with high attrition, like the one that gave Bottas 13th in China. This weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix is a tough test, because the thin air makes cooling harder than at any other track. Overheating has already been one of Cadillac’s most persistent problems.

FAQ

Has Cadillac scored any points in F1? Not yet. After 18 rounds of 2026, Cadillac is the only team without a point. Its best result is 13th, by Valtteri Bottas in China.

Why is Cadillac slow in 2026? Three main reasons. The car lacks downforce, especially at the rear. Its energy deployment has cost lap time. And reliability problems have caused 13 retirements.

What engine does Cadillac use? A customer Ferrari power unit and gearbox. Cadillac plans to switch to its own General Motors power unit in 2029.

Who is faster, Bottas or Pérez? Pérez leads the qualifying head-to-head 10–8 and the race head-to-head 6–1 in races where both cars finished.