Formula 1, Sportrik Media - Sergio Perez has taken full responsibility for his early-race collision with teammate Valtteri Bottas during the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit.
The incident occurred at Turn 4 shortly after the start when the two Cadillac drivers were battling for position. Perez attempted an inside move on Bottas, but the gap quickly closed, resulting in contact between the teammates and sending Perez into a spin.
Speaking after the race, Perez acknowledged that the move was entirely his mistake.
“That was all on me. I saw the gap and went for it, but looking at it now, Valtteri had nowhere to go,” said Sergio Perez.
The spin cost Perez valuable time and track position early in the race, forcing the Mexican driver to spend much of the grand prix attempting to recover lost ground.
“It ended up costing me the race because I spun and lost a lot of time. Luckily I managed to come back to the field,” he explained.
However, Perez’s race became further complicated during the second stint when he attempted to overtake Bottas using the car’s overtaking mode, which relies heavily on electrical energy deployment.
According to Perez, the battery system suddenly lost performance, costing him several seconds during a crucial moment of the race.
“On the second stint I was about to overtake Valtteri with the overtake mode on, and I lost the battery. I lost about five seconds, and later on another 15 or 20 seconds,” he said.
Despite the setbacks, Perez highlighted a positive aspect for the team: both Cadillac cars managed to finish the race, an important milestone for the American manufacturer in the early stages of its Formula 1 programme.
“The positive thing is that we finished with both cars. The negative is that we still have a lot of tuning to do in many areas to avoid losing track position,” Perez added.
He also reiterated that the collision with Bottas was a simple misjudgement on his part.
“That’s the worst feeling you can have for yourself and for the team. Luckily nothing serious happened, and the incident was just a misjudgement from my side,” he admitted.
During the race, the two Cadillac drivers were effectively battling each other on track after both Aston Martin cars retired from the grand prix, leaving the American team fighting in the lower midfield.
An interesting moment from the race was captured on Perez’s onboard camera but not shown on the world broadcast feed. During a radio conversation with his team, Perez joked about needing a speed boost.
“I need a mushroom now,” Perez said while laughing over team radio.
The remark referenced the famous “mushroom” power-up from the video game Mario Kart, which gives players a temporary speed boost. Perez’s comment also appeared to be a light-hearted jab at the 2026 Formula 1 regulations, which place greater emphasis on battery deployment for overtaking.
Earlier in the weekend, Perez had already criticised the new system, describing overtaking under the current regulations as “very fake” due to the heavy reliance on electrical energy management.
In the final classification, Bottas finished the race in 13th position, marking Cadillac’s best result so far in the team’s early Formula 1 campaign.
Perez crossed the finish line in 15th place, the final classified driver in the race.
After the race, Bottas revealed that his car had suffered damage to the floor during the early collision with Perez.
“I had a big piece missing from the floor on the left side, so that didn’t help,” said Valtteri Bottas.
Despite the damage, the Finnish driver expressed satisfaction with the result, considering it came in only the second grand prix for the Cadillac project.
“I’m very happy to be 13th. In our second grand prix for the team we are already close to the points,” he explained.
Bottas also noted that Cadillac is still lacking overall pace compared with several midfield teams but believes the team has shown encouraging progress.
“We can see that at the moment Aston Martin is probably the main team we can fight with, but at least we can fight with them,” he said.
Looking ahead, Bottas emphasised that further performance improvements will be necessary if Cadillac aims to compete consistently with other teams in the midfield battle throughout the 2026 Formula 1 season.
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