As Motorsport.com reports, there may never have been such a stark contrast in intra-team performance during the 2026 Formula 1 season as the one witnessed between Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The gap between the Cadillac Racing teammates in Baku was massive, leaving the team with plenty to investigate.
Valtteri Bottas endured a torrid weekend from the start. He was outqualified by 1.632s on Friday, though his efforts were hindered by a yellow flag. His race woes were even worse, as by his first pitstop on lap 26, the Finn was already over 46 seconds adrift of the sister Cadillac. That deficit equated to a 1.9s loss per lap, and his late-race pace remained similarly sluggish as he dropped back by 1.6s a lap following the safety car interventions.
The way I felt like I was driving, if anything went wrong at any corner I would have put it in the wall. So when you do a race like this, you feel really proud,
"Long one," Valtteri Bottas nervously chuckled when asked to describe his race. "Honestly, no pace at all. I could only fight with Fernando [Alonso] – for sure, we lost some time there. Otherwise, pretty far off, so lots of things to look into from this weekend."
While the veteran admitted he had to do some lift-and-coast, he maintained that it could not explain his mammoth deficit, suspecting there was something else at play. Unfortunately, his afternoon ended prematurely in the wall due to a technical issue shortly before the checkered flag. The Finn explained that a lock-up and wide moment into Turn 1 confused the systems because of the extra distance, leading to a huge super clip into Turn 15 where only the front brakes would work and energy harvesting with the rears seemingly failed. Notably, the Finn has now completed three consecutive grands prix without spending a single racing lap ahead of his teammate on the track.
On the other side of the garage, Sergio Perez matched the pace of the midfield through the first stint. On lap 20, when Carlos Sainz made his first pitstop, the Spaniard led the Cadillac by just one second, with Audi pair Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto close behind. Perez capitalized on the safety car to emerge ahead of Sainz, briefly holding 12th after passing Gabriel Bortoleto following the restart chaos, before eventually falling back to 15th behind Liam Lawson, Bortoleto, and Oscar Piastri.
"It's been one of my best weekends in Baku to be honest, I managed to get 150% out of that car," the two-time Azerbaijan GP winner said.
Perez pointed out that the team lacked straightline speed at the restart, leaving him as a sitting duck against rivals utilizing overtake mode. Yet, his sheer commitment on the street circuit bridged the gap. "The way I felt like I was driving, if anything went wrong at any corner I would have put it in the wall. So when you do a race like this, you feel really proud," Perez added.
