‘Honeymoon over’ – Perez keen on ‘big steps forward’ after ‘incredible’ Cadillac debut

Sergio Perez says “the honeymoon is over” for the Cadillac F1 team following its “incredible” debut at the Australian Grand Prix last weekend.

And he has called for the American outfit to take “big steps forward” to close the gap to its rivals.

Sergio Perez: ‘Incredible’ to complete first Cadillac F1 race

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Cadillac made its long-awaited debut in Australia last weekend, becoming the first brand-new team to arrive on the grid since fellow US outfit Haas in 2016.

Perez and teammate Valtteri Bottas were the slowest of the drivers to set a time in qualifying, with the Mexican trailing the next-fastest car – Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin-Honda – by 0.7 seconds.

Bottas retired after 15 laps of the race due to a fuel system issue, while Perez was lapped three times en route to 16th place.

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Perez says it was an “incredible” feeling to finish Cadillac’s landmark first race in Formula 1 after the team was forced to combat “a lot of issues” at the start of the weekend.

And he has declared that “the honeymoon is over”, calling for the team to work on closing the gap to the cars ahead.

He told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets in Melbourne: “The first step is done as a team. Completing the race was incredible.

“It’s a shame that our battery couldn’t complete it, but overall it was a great one. A great recovery for the weekend.

“We started with a lot of issues, but I think from now on obviously the honeymoon is over and now it’s all about [how] we need to do big steps forward.

“We need to put a plan in the team to move along and close the gap, which I believe we can do.

“But we are all very competitive inside the team and that’s the attitude we need to be able to close the gap and aim for something big this year.”

Bottas offered a more positive assessment of Cadillac’s pace, adding: “Overall, we were there. We were racing with some cars.

“We kept Aston behind, not initially falling miles back, so that’s encouraging to see.

“So overall, even though I’m standing here [with the race ongoing after his retirement], I’m still proud of the whole team and I’m very happy to be back.

“This is part of the learning curve. We’ve just got to keep resolving issues and the only way is up from here.”

Bottas added that tyre graining was the main limitation before issues developed on his car, necessitating a visit to the pits purely for a change of steering wheel, with no change of tyres, at one stage.

He revealed that he was ordered to stop the car immediately after Cadillac noticed a fuel system issue despite being close to the pit entry.

Recalling his race, he explained: “Start was good – actually, all the practice starts have been decent, so I was quite confident for that even with the hard tyre.

“But then, naturally with the hard tyre, a lack of pace, started to fall back.

“And the biggest issue, before the [big] issues happened, was that I started to have quite a bit of graining on this tyre, so that was the biggest worry I had going ahead in the race.

“But then the issues started. The first issue seemed to be something mechanical. Actually, I think probably steering wheel-related, because when we swapped the wheel in the pit lane, it helped.

“But then there was another issue, we had to stop the car. I asked the team [and said]: ‘I’m almost in the pit lane.’

“But they said: ‘Stop now.'”

Additional reporting by Mat Coch

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