Bottas Was 1.7 Seconds a Lap Off the Pace in Baku — Then Parked It in the Wall
While Sergio Perez got to enjoy Ferrari’s shiny new ADUO 2 engine upgrade, his Cadillac teammate Valtteri Bottas spent Baku lapping like he was driving a different car entirely — and in a sense, he was. The Finn averaged 1.7 seconds a lap slower than Perez, with the gap between their fastest laps stretching to 1.489 seconds, the biggest team-mate split of the entire 2026 season. As if that wasn’t enough, Bottas capped the weekend by parking it in the wall on the final lap, after a trip down the Turn 1 escape road cooked his rear brakes to the point they simply gave up into Turn 15.
Bottas didn’t sugarcoat his own performance either: “There was just no way to keep up with the pack,” he admitted, reeling off a list of culprits — straight-line speed losses, corner-speed deficits, dampers wilting in the heat, a power steering system losing its nerve, and incomplete aero telemetry. But the headline reason is simpler: Perez already has Ferrari’s upgraded engine, while Bottas is still waiting for his, with the driver himself calling a Malaysia introduction “50/50” and Singapore the more likely bet.
Throw in Cadillac’s structural issues — a serious downforce deficit and too much drag, which bite hardest through Sepang’s high-speed corners — and the picture is clear: F1’s newest team is still learning to run with the grown-ups.
Source: The Race (https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-2026-worst-race-drive-cadillac-valtteri-bottas/)
