Andretti Global strained every sinew to gain entry into motorsport’s most exclusive club, even being forced to ditch the iconic motor racing family name in favour of ‘Cadillac’ to appease F1’s top brass. Yet the reality of life in the F1 paddock for the American-owned team is proving to be brutal.
The American project knew a brand-new entry would face steep uphill battles, but the early rounds have been tougher than expected. Their star veteran signing, Sergio Perez, has not finished a single race higher than 16th place so far this season. His frustrations peaked at the Canadian Grand Prix, where a suspension failure forced him into an early retirement.
Mechanical Failure in Montreal
Perez had just exited the back straight at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on lap 39, en route to entering the pit lane, when the front-right suspension collapsed, leading to him limping back to his team’s garage into retirement.
“It’s something we need to investigate, understand, and hopefully get on top of, because it’s not ideal what happened,” he said in the media pen.
Perez Demands Immediate Progress
Perez went on to reveal the Cadillac F1 team is nowhere near the level he expects. “Operationally, we are still lacking a lot, and we are not making progress in terms of performance, so we need to maximise the car performance at the moment.”
While this is Cadillac’s first season and Montreal was just the fifth Grand Prix weekend for the team, Sergio appears impatient with their progress and believes Cadillac should be doing better by now.
“It’s something that we have to improve, and we are in a massive hurry, because we are not maximising the results,” he added. On a positive note, Perez claimed that in qualifying the team has improved its performance, but cautions there is a very long way to go.
Shared Struggles Across the Garage
Things aren’t much better on the other side of the garage. Valtteri Bottas managed only a 16th-place finish in Canada and has frequently found himself being lapped multiple times by front-runners Mercedes and Ferrari.
Given the mountain they had to climb, the team elected to appoint two experienced drivers rather than fulfil their initial commitment to field an American-born pilot, but just five race weekends in, the atmosphere within the race team is becoming fraught.
Paddock Rumours and Transfer Speculation
Reports are emerging that the veteran Formula 1 driver is considering an early departure from Cadillac after receiving interest from several rival outfits. According to Dutch F1 journalist Jacky Martens, holding onto their star signing will be a massive challenge for the American outfit. Speaking on the Paddock Access podcast, Martens revealed that Perez’s camp has already been approached by other teams.
“I know there is interest from some teams,” Martens said. “More than one. Cadillac would love to keep him, but it’s going to be very hard to keep him. If he can get a promotion to a better team, a bit further up the grid, of course he would consider it.”
Simultaneously, paddock rumours have intensified over the last week that Cadillac management might also make the decision to drop Valtteri Bottas at the end of the year, with reserve driver Colton Herta widely regarded as the natural internal replacement. However, he must complete a season in F2 in order to gain his F1 Super Licence.
Lowdon’s Optimistic Operational Outlook
Team Principal Graeme Lowdon preferred to focus on the gains they had made in Montreal, stating: “Even challenging races can yield useful learnings, and that’s what we can take away from this weekend. Overall, it’s been our most competitive weekend to date. We introduced some further upgrades, which have given us another step up in performance, and we were able to race on pace in the midfield.”
That said, Lowdon did concur with Perez’s assessment of the state of the team. “Operationally we know where we need to improve, but everything we do is being done for the first time. We’ll address it as we go into the European season.”
Looking Ahead to the Streets of Monaco
With the F1 circus heading next to Monaco, Cadillac will face a very different kind of challenge to the ones they’ve experienced so far. Qualifying is everything, with the 2023 race seeing the top ten drivers come home on Sunday in the order they started the Grand Prix.
That said, it is likely to be a battle between the Aston Martin and Cadillac drivers for the last four positions on the starting field.
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With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
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Highly doubtful that other teams would willingly sacrifize one of their current drivers for him & I’d only buy into this rumor if it came from AMuS.
In such a scenario, they’d even more clearly keep Bottas to have at least some driver stability & I also doubt Checo would leave them, so he’s also almost certainly in his last F1 team.
All in all, Cadillac will most likely head into next season with the same lineup to maximize stability, even if Herta reached super license eligibility, although they could alternatively offer Crawford a full-time drive.
One thing is certain & it’s that only American drivers have a chance to succeed or replace either one, or otherwise they wouldn’t have gone for both simultaneously.