How Cadillac F1 Finished the 2026 British Grand Prix and What the Team Said

The Race Result

Both cars finished on the lead lap, a notable achievement for the sport's newest team. Bottas's finish was especially significant — it was his first Grand Prix completion after three straight retirements in Imola, Monaco, and Austria . The race was won by Charles Leclerc, with George Russell second and Lewis Hamilton third .

What the Drivers Said

Sergio Perez was the more upbeat of the two drivers. Starting last on the grid, the Mexican driver gained five positions during the race, including a strong start that he identified as key. "Overall it was a good race and probably one of our best so far this season," he told the team's official report. "We had a really good start and were fighting to hold the Haas cars behind. There is some work to do, but we have to keep pushing and hopefully the next package of upgrades will bring us up. With just a little bit more speed we will really be in the mix with the midfield teams."

Valtteri Bottas emphasized that finishing the race was itself the top positive: "It's the first time after three events with DNFs." He also saw encouraging signs in the car's long-run pace: "It's also the first race distance we've finished with the upgrades so there's a lot we can learn. I think we have improved our pace overall. At times especially on the Hard tire, it felt like we were a bit closer to the midfield while keeping a good margin from Aston throughout the whole race."

Team Leadership Reaction

Team Principal Graeme Lowdon praised the team's resilience after a grueling double-header. He called the British GP "a really strong race" in which both cars "had good starts and the pace to run comfortably ahead of the Astons and race with the Haas cars." The local Fishers, Indiana-based news outlet LarryInFishers described the afternoon as "one of [Cadillac's] more encouraging afternoons of a demanding rookie season" — no points yet, but a clean race with track position gains and growing reliability .

The Bigger Picture

While no major new engineering hire was announced specifically during the Silverstone weekend (the team's key technical appointments — Nick Chester as Chief Technical Officer, Jon Tomlinson as Head of Aerodynamics, Pat Symonds as advisor — were all confirmed earlier in the season ), the weekend underscored what the 2026 season is about for Cadillac: incremental gains, reliability, and learning. The team has hired at a rapid pace of roughly one new recruit per day, reaching about 600 staff by early 2026, but none of the published sources from the British GP weekend mention a new headline hire at that specific round .

Cadillac remains 11th and last in the constructors' championship with zero points after nine races . But at Silverstone, the team demonstrated that its upgrades are working, that its drivers can race the Haas and Aston Martin cars on pace, and that the project is surviving the brutal learning curve of a debut season. As Perez put it: "With just a little bit more speed we will really be in the mix."