Sergio Perez has apologised after Cadillac suffered in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix what no team ever wants to see – contact between their two drivers.
The chances of an incident on the first lap are high, and the chances of that being between two team mates are higher still when they qualify close together. Valtteri Bottas started 20th on the grid in Shanghai, Perez 22nd, but both got off the line well and were making progress towards Turn 1.
As the Mexican followed his team mate through the first corners, he spied a gap on the outside and went for the move. But Bottas was sandwiched by the Audi of Nico Hulkenberg and left with nowhere to go, squeezing his team mate as the two touched.
Perez wound up spinning, but was able to regain contact with the rest of the field when the Safety Car came out on Lap 10. He finished 15th in the end, as Bottas came home in P13 – and Perez was quick to hold his hands up post-race.
“That was fully on me, I saw the gap and I went for it, Valtteri didn’t have anywhere to go,” he said. “It was very optimistic, so full apologies on that one to Valtteri and the team.
“Unhappily it ended up costing me the race, I spun, I lost a lot of track time. I came back and was back in the race and I was about to overtake Valtteri on the back straight and then I had deployment issues, losing about five seconds the first time and then the second time, another 15 seconds. So, a bit of tidy up to do in that regard.”
Bottas, meanwhile, is not harbouring any ill-will towards his team mate – the bonus of Cadillac taking on such experienced drivers being that neither overreacts to racing incidents.
“A bit of a contact but these things happen,” confirmed the Finn. “I didn’t see him there and actually didn’t really have any space. We spoke already, all good.”
“I’m just glad we both finished, that was the main goal of today and to race Aston [Martin], which we did. And honestly, really proud of everyone. Second race ever for us in Formula 1 and we got P13 so it is not bad.”
Bottas did not manage to finish the race in Australia, while Perez had some issues earlier in the Chinese weekend in terms of reliability, so both cars seeing the chequered flag is definite progress for Cadillac.
Especially on a day where McLaren failed to get either car to the start line, with Alex Albon and Gabriel Bortoleto also unable to take part in the Grand Prix for Williams and Audi respectively.
“We can be very pleased with that result,” added Graeme Lowdon. “We saw today that the complexity of the new cars has given some experienced teams significant issues, so to get two cars to the finish at the end of our second-ever race weekend is a great achievement for everyone.
“We can leave this first double-header with our heads held high.”
