Cadillac did not score points in Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, but the new Formula 1 team continued the steady early-season progress that matters most for a startup operation with major ties to Fishers. Sergio Perez finished 17th and Valtteri Bottas was 19th, giving Cadillac its second straight double-car finish. Perez also completed the race on the lead lap for the first time this season.
At the front of the field, Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli won the race, beating Oscar Piastri of McLaren by 13.722 seconds, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third. The win made Antonelli the Formula 1 championship leader after three races.
For Cadillac, the Suzuka result was less about finishing position than about building reliability and learning quickly. The team said it has now posted back-to-back two-car finishes after also getting both cars home in China. Team principal Graeme Lowdon called Japan “another strong weekend” and said Cadillac had taken “another significant step forward” in execution and reliability.
Perez sounded encouraged after the race, saying, “Today was our strongest race so far this year.” He added that the team had made “a lot of progress in a short space of time” and believed the car’s pace is getting stronger.
Bottas said the result still provided useful information, noting that Cadillac now goes into a break in the schedule with time to “analyze everything learned so far and spend more time developing the car.”
That next development step could be important. Cadillac brought upgrades to Japan, including revised aerodynamic pieces, and Lowdon said another upgrade package is planned for Miami. He specifically thanked team personnel in Indianapolis, Charlotte, Silverstone and Germany, underscoring the international build-out behind Cadillac’s debut season. Formula 1’s official overview of the team says Cadillac’s U.S. headquarters is in Fishers, alongside its UK base near Silverstone and power-unit work in North Carolina.
Through three races, Cadillac remains without a point and sits 10th in the constructors’ standings, ahead of only Aston Martin on a tiebreaker. But for a first-year team built from scratch, Japan offered another sign that the operation connected to Fishers is becoming more stable and more race-ready each week. The next measuring stick comes May 3 at Miami, Cadillac’s first home Grand Prix.