Encouraging pace but no reward as Bottas battles balance issues and Pérez retires in Canada

Cadillac gambled by starting both Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez on Intermediate tyres, but with the track drying rapidly and no further rain arriving, the strategy backfired immediately.

Both drivers were forced to pit early and found themselves a lap down before the race had truly settled.

Bottas’ afternoon became even more complicated when he received a penalty for speeding in the pit lane, while Pérez’s race ended in dramatic fashion when a front‑suspension failure struck just as he was heading into the pits.

Despite the setbacks, Cadillac’s upgrades delivered clear performance gains, and the team left Montreal believing they had taken a meaningful step forward.

After finishing 16th, Bottas described a race dominated by handling issues: “A long and tough day out there. We really struggled with the balance. We couldn't cure the oversteer in anyway throughout the race, which was the biggest issue and something we need to investigate.”

He emphasised that progress is happening even if it isn’t yet visible in the results: “Result wise, we maybe sometimes can't see that much progress, but it's not only the pace of the car as we’ve been continuing to make improvements everywhere else. We're getting there step by step and always knew it would take time.”

Looking ahead, he added: “The next race is in two weeks, so hopefully we can take another step forward.”

Pérez was upbeat about the team’s pace despite his retirement. He said: “It was going well! Obviously at the start we got it wrong with the intermediate tyres, but it was 50-50 which way to go.”

He felt competitive once the race settled: “We were recovering and in contention, battling with Esteban [Ocon] and then I got ahead of the Haas and we had some good pace.”

Then came the failure: “Then unfortunately we had a suspension failure and had to retire.”

Despite the disappointment, Pérez was encouraged by Cadillac’s progress: “We’ve done a massive step in the right direction this weekend and it has been our most competitive weekend since the start of the season, so plenty of positives. We just need to clean up operationally now to capitalise on the progress we’ve made.”

Team Principal Graeme Lowdon echoed Pérez’s optimism, highlighting the team’s development gains. He said:

“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.”

He praised the impact of Cadillac’s upgrades: “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.”

Lowdon also acknowledged areas for improvement: “Operationally we know where we need to improve, but everything we do is being done for the first time. We’ll address as we go into the European season.”

Looking ahead to Monaco, he added: “Monaco represents a very different challenge to anything we’ve seen before so we will debrief, regroup and come back even stronger.”