Cadillac F1 drivers clash in Chinese GP, Sergio Perez apologises to Valtteri Bottas

Perez collided with Bottas at the start of the Shanghai race but owned up to his mistake

Sergio Perez has taken responsibility for the Cadillac cars’ collision at the start of Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Perez and Valtteri Bottas were battling over 14th place – after pre-race attrition took four cars out of the contest – in Turn 3, the tight left-hander that follows the drawn-out opening curve, when the incident occurred.

Perez stayed on the inside of Bottas’ car into the corner, but Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin lay on the outside; the Mexican found himself on the kerb, hit the Finn’s sidepod with his front-right wheel and spun, damaging his team-mate’s car in the process.

Perez only lost a few seconds, and the early safety car allowed him to catch up anyway. Bottas overtook Alonso on lap six, with the Mexican doing likewise on lap 15, so Cadillac led its main – and arguably only – rival until the two-time world champion retired from the race due to crippling vibrations that were making him ‘lose all feeling’ in his hands and feet.

The black-and-white MAC-26s eventually finished 13th and 15th, with Bottas beating Esteban Ocon under the chequered flag after the Frenchman collided with Franco Colapinto.

Asked about the intra-team incident, Perez owned up to a “misjudgement” on his part. “That was all on me,” he admitted. “I saw the gap, I went for it. But obviously, looking at it, Valtteri had nowhere to go. Unfortunately, it ended up costing me the race because I spun, I lost a lot of time. Luckily, I managed to come back to the field.

Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

“And then on the second stint, I was about to overtake Valtteri with the overtake mode on and I lost the engine. I lost the battery, so I lost like five seconds. And then later on, I lost another 15 or 20 seconds.

“So in general, I think the positive thing is that we finished with both cars. The negative is that I think we have a lot of cleaning to do in a lot of areas to make sure that we don't lose track position and we arrive to the races a lot more prepared.”

Asked how nice it was to have a team-mate with who you can talk through incidents like adults, Perez replied: “Well, I think it's how it should be, when there are no bad intentions between team-mates, and when you look at the incident. Straight away, I think it's important just to apologise and realise that you messed up. That's how it is, you know, sometimes you make mistakes; unfortunately, it was with Valtteri, but I'm happy he finished the race.”

Still, the clash didn’t make Bottas’ drive easy. “I had a big piece missing from the floor on the left side, so that didn't help,” the Finn revealed. “I just felt the contact, I didn't really know he was there.

“But all good in the end, and yes, very, very happy to be 13th in our second grand prix for the team, getting already close to the points. Of course, there were many DNFs, but it's a good one for us.”

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

‘Close to the points’ admittedly is a bit of a stretch from Bottas, who finished 44 seconds down on 10th-placed Colapinto. Nevertheless, one can hardly blame the veteran for spinning the result in a positive way for the nascent Cadillac outfit – especially as its reliability has been decent, other than recurrent fuel system issues.

Asked how proud Cadillac could be given reigning constructors’ champion McLaren failed to start the race with either of its cars, Bottas replied: “Very proud. Like I said, for the second race to finish with both cars… P13, P15 is decent, so it's a good starting point.

“For sure we're lacking pace; we can see that it's pretty much only Aston at the moment that we can fight with, but at least we can fight with them. But if we want to beat some other teams then we need more performance.”