Cadillac arrived in Formula 1 expecting a slow start and a long build. A few rounds into its debut season, the new American team is quietly delivering on the second half of that promise — and Canada offered the clearest sign yet of progress.
The consensus inside the team after the Canadian Grand Prix was that Montreal had been its most competitive weekend of the year, and the on-track evidence backed it up. Running Ferrari customer power units, Cadillac has steadily closed the gap to the midfield since the early flyaway races, trimming a deficit that stood at around four seconds in Australia to roughly two to two-and-a-half seconds in qualifying.
Sergio Pérez has led the charge. The Mexican was about a second a lap quicker than team-mate Valtteri Bottas in race pace in Canada — a margin also seen in Miami — and produced tidy overtakes and solid defending on his way to 11th in the sprint. Tyre preservation, the car's biggest early weakness, has improved noticeably, and the team rates its braking stability and traction as genuine strengths.
The upgrade path explains much of the momentum. After starting the season with a deliberately basic car and few updates across the opening rounds, Cadillac brought a meaningful package in Miami and added to it in Canada, with a new floor, front wing, diffuser, brake drums and suspension-area changes. Crucially, running Ferrari engines gives the team shared reference points on where rivals deploy and recharge — invaluable knowledge as everyone wrestles with the complex 2026 power units.
The bigger leap is still to come. As the analysis channel F1 Unchained set out, Cadillac is planning only small additions for Monaco and Barcelona before a major bodywork overhaul earmarked for Austria, when the team expects to finally shed the basic-spec midsection it launched with. By then it should have a far better grasp of both the power unit and the wider package, and the new ADO catch-up mechanism — which lets manufacturers behind on engine performance spend and develop more — is also expected to help.
Reliability remains the obvious caveat. A wing mirror flew off in Australia, and in Canada a front-suspension problem struck as a car reached the pit lane, the kind of teething issues a first-year operation is always likely to face. Team principal Graeme Lowdon has repeatedly stressed how much execution and reliability will matter as the season unfolds.
Expectations should stay grounded. A first season was never going to be about fighting for fifth or sixth in the constructors' standings. But reaching Q2 more regularly and scoring points before the summer break is a realistic target, and there is a growing belief that Cadillac could be a genuine dark horse in the second half of the year once the Austria upgrade lands. Monaco, a high-downforce circuit, may be a tougher weekend — but the trajectory is unmistakably upward.
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*Originally published on [News Formula One](https://newsformula.one/article/cadillac-canada-best-weekend-austria-upgrade-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
