Cadillac left the first day of activities at the Monaco F1 Grand Prix with confidence that they can fight for better positions in Saturday’s qualifying session. Despite an incident that ended FP2 early for Sergio Perez, the team evaluated Friday as positive and believes they are close to their direct competitors.
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Perez finished FP1 in 14th position and closed FP2 in 18th, but highlighted that the gap to the cars ahead was small. The Mexican believes that a few tenths can make a big difference on a circuit as short and challenging as Monaco.
“It was a shame to end the second session the way we did on track, but it’s also part of finding the limits for Sunday’s race. It was important to complete as many laps as possible,” said the Cadillac driver.
The Mexican assessed that the team had a strong Friday and believes the performance shown leaves room for optimism: “We were close. A few tenths would have completely changed our situation. I hope we can find them when it really matters,” he said.
Perez also emphasized that the final grid position will depend not only on Cadillac’s work but also on the performance of their rivals: “We are close to the cars in front of us and tomorrow’s result will depend on how others perform. In Monaco anything can happen, we just need to be there when it matters and extract the maximum from the car,” he concluded.
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On the other side of the garage, Valtteri Bottas faced a more complicated Friday. The Finn finished both sessions in 21st position and admitted difficulties in finding a suitable setup for the car throughout the day.
According to Bottas, the team still needs to better understand the car’s balance in corners and also resolve issues related to the car’s behavior on track: “We struggled with the setup and also with how the car was behaving. Now we have all night to analyze the data, get feedback from the simulator, and work on improvements for tomorrow,” he added.
Team principal Graeme Lowdon assessed that Friday met Cadillac’s main objectives. He highlighted that the team managed to gather important information on a circuit very different from the others visited this season, and stated that Perez’s retirement at the end of FP2 will be investigated. Still, Lowdon believes the team has built a solid foundation to face tomorrow’s qualifying session, considered the most important moment of the weekend in Monaco.
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