Cadillac no longer last after beating Aston Martin in Suzuka qualifying

Small step forward for Cadillac, though major performance gap to midfield persists

Cadillac beat Aston Martin to 19th and 20th on the grid of Formula 1’s Japanese Grand Prix, on a tricky weekend for Sergio Perez.

Perez was the faster Cadillac driver on Saturday, with a 1m32.206s putting him 0.440s ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, albeit 1.1s away from 18th-placed Oliver Bearman and 1.3s down on the Q2 cut-off time.

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Perez clearly could have been faster as his weekend so far has been impacted by energy deployment problems, on top of a collision with Alex Albon in free practice.

“We didn't have a clean weekend so far,” the Mexican commented. “We are struggling a lot with deployment issues, I'm losing around three [tenths] to half a second every single lap that I've done so far on the weekend. And we still don't fully understand it well, so I really hope that tomorrow we can sort it out, because that would be a lot of race time.

“As a driver and as a team, you always want to maximise the full potential of your car. And when you don't do that, it's a bit of a disappointment. But obviously we have to look at the positives as well – we are ahead of Aston and we are looking good in race pace compared to them.

“But yeah, we really have to start putting our maximum performance together. I lost a run also in qualifying, so I only did two. So a lot of things, if you add them all together, can be a lot of lap time, so we just have to make sure that we get on top of those things.”

Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing

Photo by: Michael Potts / LAT Images via Getty Images

Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas was 0.124s slower than his team-mate after pushing perhaps a bit too hard in qualifying.

Asked if he too suffered from deployment issues, the Finn replied: “No deployment issues. I was trying to squeeze a bit more lap time in the last lap, but probably overdid it a bit, cooked the tyres a bit more, but you've got to try. I think that's just where we are now. There's still a clear gap to the midfield and a gap to Aston, so that's kind of where we are.

“The feeling has been positive this weekend compared to China. The lap time is coming a bit easier. We have a bit more options with the set-up now, but ultimately we're still lacking load – especially compared to the top teams, a lot of load.”

But the picture isn’t as bleak as the above assessment makes it sound, especially as the diffuser upgrade Cadillac brought onto the MAC-26 at Suzuka is bearing fruit. “We gained a bit of load, especially on the rear end,” Bottas pointed out.

“Fundamentally, even though we're lacking load, some of the driveability, the balance of the car is in a decent window from the get-go,” he added. “So, yeah, all the fundamentals are there to make good steps, but now we've just got to make them.”

The five-week break until the Miami round is giving Bottas hope that Cadillac will make a bigger step there, with “a lot in the pipeline”. The team will need it to get closer to the midfield while holding off the mightier Aston outfit.