Cadillac half-season review: Reliability gremlins hinder sturdy start

Cadillac has completed its first half-season on the Formula 1 grid, as the first all-new team to have joined the sport since Haas a decade ago.

It has been a long run-up for the team since its arrival was confirmed, recruiting staff from other teams or bringing experience back to the grid, operating out of more than one base across the US and UK, but it will also have flown by, with final approval to join the grid having only come in March 2025.

Cadillac faced long road, but reliability issues hinder 2026 start

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The team, backed by TWG Motorsports and General Motors, only receiving final word of acceptance onto the Formula 1 grid a year before its start on the grid was always going to bring its issues with it.

Despite having plenty already in place – personnel, factory, a customer power unit until 2028, the final crossing of T’s and dotting of I’s would surely have left some kind of doubt in the minds of those there for the ‘what if’ scenario of falling at the final hurdle.

No matter what designs were put on paper by then, it will have been difficult to commit to anything before that early March acceptance – already perhaps unknowingly leaving them somewhat behind in the development race.

Despite that, the team was working with one goal in mind rather than existing teams, who were trying to juggle development of two cars at once alongside a full competitive race schedule.

Cadillac joined in even before arriving on the grid, taking in full simulations of race weekends from their factory to establish working processes before making its mark on the sport.

No matter how much help that will have been, there remains no true substitute for being at the track on race weekends and, with Cadillac believed to have a significantly larger staff base than Haas, the investment is there to try and make inroads in future.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing, however.

With nine retirements in 11 races so far – second only to Aston Martin on that front – reliability gremlins have cost Cadillac valuable track time and the data that comes with it.

Chief among those issues have been the brakes, with both Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez having played firefighter at different times in putting out brake fires and four retirements alone coming from the brakes, with a further three retirements from suspension problems.

While retirements happen and reliability is a big hurdle in Formula 1, no team wants the same issue to linger and cause multiple DNFs, and work will doubtless be ongoing into fixing those areas of the MAC-26.

How have the drivers performed?

In a backmarking car, it’s difficult to judge anywhere beyond how they fare against each other, but in hiring Perez and Bottas, Cadillac brought in the two best drivers out of work at the time, and the bonus of a wealth of experience in title-winning teams to boot.

After the bruising way in which he left Red Bull, few would have expected Perez to bounce back in the way he has. Almost akin to his difficult experience at McLaren in 2013, Perez seems to have found himself again with a team looking to make its mark on Formula 1.

Make no mistake, Bottas on his day has been as good as anyone on the grid, and for Perez to have looked the more impressive on the whole speaks volumes about how he has bounced back.

That’s not to discount Bottas, however. He’s brushed past early-season rumours of being replaced at Cadillac – though there was no truth in them anyway – and recent races have seen him bring the qualifying head-to-head back to a respectable 6-5 deficit at the halfway stage, being 3-1 down in Sprints too, and for those who felt aggrieved at his jettisoning from a Sauber seat without anywhere to go, he has not lost his touch in his year away.

With the right machinery, these two would be comfortably in the points every weekend and they have the knowhow of both race wins and a heap of podiums along with it, so when the time comes to capitalise – even though it may not be soon – they know how to do so.

How the F1 2026 season stands

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Any silly season changes on the horizon?

Cadillac had appeared to be setting up former IndyCar star, Colton Herta, for an attempt at gaining a seat in 2027, however.

He took a brave step by dropping into a feeder series this season, going into Formula 2 to learn both how Formula 1-style machinery and tyres operate, but to earn the precious Super Licence points he needs to be eligible for a Formula 1 seat.

So far, though, that gamble seems to have backfired. Despite his significant success in IndyCar and other categories, the 26-year-old sits 16th in the standings, with one top-five finish to his name and finishing in the top 10 six times in 18 attempts.

Both Bottas and Perez are believed to have contract options for next season, and neither driver has seemingly been perturbed by Herta’s presence in the background just yet.

Bottas told PlanetF1.com and other media at Spa when asked about unsubstantiated rumours about his future: “The main thing is I know my situation and, when we saw the rumours, the team came to me [and said] that these are completely false.

“I also know what my situation is, so that’s why it’s fine, and it’s nothing new in my career. So, no silly season for me.”

As of their first-half performances in 2026, continuity in its driver line-up looks the best way at this stage.

Daunting task remains for Cadillac from here

It’s fair to say Cadillac has, in terms of at least maintaining its gap to the front and not falling further behind, kept up a solid rate of development throughout the season so far.

So much so that it briefly had Aston Martin move to its rear-view mirrors for a couple of races, and by no short distance either – though Aston’s B-spec chassis put paid to that in Hungary.

The underlying problem with starting at the back is not just having to develop to keep up, it’s having to outdevelop everyone ahead of you to try and climb forward – all now within the same budget cap restraints.

Cadillac knows its early time in Formula 1 is about building foundations for the future, and its project certainly remains ambitious.

But for its reliability blips, it’s fair to say Cadillac has largely hit the ground running in its stint in Formula 1, but everyone in the team knows the road ahead is an extremely long one to get to championships.

While other teams will likely get pilloried for their lack of pace, it’s a relative game in Formula 1 and, despite sitting at the back of the field, Cadillac can head to the sun loungers pretty pleased with its work so far.

The real litmus test for the team likely lays on the horizon, with how it balances preparing for next season and beyond, the spectre of its own factory power unit from 2029 and other long-term projects.

As the team gathers further experience, the pressure will likely ramp up to perform. In the here and now, though, the clichéd journey of a thousand miles has started with a solid, albeit not-quite-perfect, step.

Mario Andretti, the man after which the MAC-26 is named, is targeting consistent challenges for points finishes before the 2026 season is out – so there’s a concrete goal to aim for as the campaign progresses.

PlanetF1.com half-season rating: 6.5/10

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