Sergio Perez sidelined by Cadillac issues as Pat Symonds says running two cars ‘four times as difficult’
Sergio Perez encountered a few mechanical woes during his Friday in Melbourne.
Cadillac encountered issues with Sergio Perez’s MAC-26 on Friday, resulting in an on-track stoppage during second practice.
The Mexican driver was the only one unable to set a lap time during Friday afternoon’s session at Albert Park.
Sergio Perez stoppage explained after MAC-26 fuel system and hydraulic problems
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Perez did 14 laps during the first practice session in Melbourne, placing 20th of the 22 drivers, ahead of the two Aston Martins.
This lapcount was amongst the lowest of the session, with Lance Stroll and Lando Norris the only drivers to complete fewer laps as both encountered technical issues with their cars.
Perez was in a similar situation, encountering a problem that required him to return to the pits after a spin at Turn 3, before he was kept in the garage for most of the second practice as the team reported a suspected sensor issue.
Speaking after the day’s running, Cadillac engineering consultant Pat Symonds clarified that the issue had been more in-depth than initially thought and, once fixed, an entirely new issue had arisen.
“It wasn’t actually a sensor. In the end, we had two separate problems,” he said.
“We had a problem with the fuel system just at the end of FP1, and to fix that, we had to take the battery out, which is quite a long job. So he was out late.”
Upon taking to the track, Perez hadn’t yet managed to complete a flying lap when he had to pull his car over to the side of the track.
“Then, unfortunately, it’s a totally unrelated hydraulic leak, which we haven’t yet analysed,” Symonds said.
“We haven’t got the car back to see exactly what it is.”
Saturday marks one year since Cadillac’s arrival onto the grid was confirmed by Formula 1, with team boss Graeme Lowdon speaking of having a “very grounded appreciation of what it takes to build a team” as his outfit has turned up with two cars for the season opener in Australia.
With the MAC-26 not suffering from any calamitous reliability concerns like the ones the established Aston Martin squad is facing, Friday marked the first day Cadillac has run two cars on track at the same time.
This accomplishment, Symonds said, is actually markedly more difficult than external observers might anticipate.
“Putting two cars out there… It’s not twice as difficult as one car. It’s like four times as difficult! There’s so much going on,” he explained.
“One of the things that’s really important in the team is having continuity. By definition, we can’t have continuity.
“We’ve got a lot of people working together for the first time, and I think they were remarkable over the testing that we’ve done this winter and through our first day of competition. I think the team has performed absolutely superbly.”
Sergio Perez: Cadillac has had similar issues ‘since Barcelona’
Aside from “a few challenges” during the car build on his side of the garage, Valtteri Bottas had a smooth day to finish 17th in FP1 and 19th in FP2, finding 0.4 seconds between the two sessions, and it was up to the Finn to get in the laps and develop the team’s understanding as Perez had to watch helplessly on from the sidelines.
“It wasn’t the easiest day out there,” Perez rued in the evening.
“We had a lot of issues, a lot of small details that we need to clean up. Hopefully, for tomorrow, we can have a much more straightforward day. That would be ideal for us.”
Put to him that such teething problems are to be expected at this early stage in a team’s existence, Perez agreed, but pointed to how operational errors have been ongoing since the first appearance on track in January.
“In a way, yes, but also I think we got some cleanup to do on our side,” he said, “because we’ve been having similar issues since Barcelona.”
As for forming a picture of how far off the pace Cadillac is, Perez said he believes the circa four seconds he was off by during FP1 is not representative.
“I think we haven’t had a lap; the lap I had was with the wrong deployment,” he said.
“I just did a single lap on the soft.
“So I do expect this to really take a step forward for tomorrow, so hopefully we can have a much cleaner day.”
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