Small step forward made by Cadillac In the Chinese Grand Prixwhere both cars of the debuting US team completed the race regularly. In Australia, while Sergio Perez had crossed the finish line, Valtteri Bottas’ return to F1 had proved disappointing for the Finn, who was instead forced to retire.
The unexpected result
In Shanghai the former Mercedes driver made up for himself not only by starting on the grid ahead of his teammate, but also finishing in 13th place, outside the points zone but still ahead of the former Red Bull driver: “An excellent result for the teamfinishing with both cars in 13th and 15th position at our second Grand Prix – he commented – I didn’t expect itas other teams had several problems during the race. As far as I’m concerned, I had a relatively calm race, which allowed us to obtain a good placing. We fought and managed to battle Aston Martin. We have clearly made progress in all the necessary areas, from the first to the second race. I’m really proud of this team, we’re going in the right direction, but we know there’s still work to do.”
The risk at departure
Satisfied with the overall result of the team too Sergio Perezbut the Mexican complained about some problems encountered during the GP following an episode that risked ending the race of both drivers of the American team: “It was a good race today and we can be happy with our performance as a team, having brought both cars to the finish line in our second Grand Prix. My race wasn’t easy: I had a contact with Valtteri at the start, my fault. I was a little too optimistic and didn’t realize it had no room to go, which cost me time. Then, every time I was catching up, I had a couple of issues with energy delivery and ended up losing more than 20 seconds in total. But we should be proud of what we have achieved in these two race weekends and I can’t wait to start from here in the next race in Japan.”
