2026 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX – QUALIFYING REPORT
October 24, 2026 — Austin, Texas — The Cadillac Formula 1® Team will start tomorrow’s United States Grand Prix with Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas in P19 and P20, respectively, as both drivers gain positions following grid penalties for competitors, having originally qualified P21 and P22. Despite both drivers extracting the maximum from the package, the team faced a challenging qualifying session, with the gap to Williams difficult to close. With a hot, bumpy race ahead, and tire management expected to be a challenge, the team will focus on maximising every opportunity to move forward in front of the team’s home fans during the 56-lap race that begins at 3 p.m. local time tomorrow.
Checo Pérez:
Qualified: P21 Q1: 1:37.433
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get the maximum out of the car. I think we were about half a second ahead, but I had an issue with the K (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) and basically got on the throttle a little bit too early because I had traffic in the final corner, and the system just got confused. It’s a little difficult to understand exactly what happened, but I lost two tenths in the final sector that I definitely could have gained. That would have put us a little bit closer to Williams, but it wasn’t enough.
“Tomorrow is going to be tougher. This track is very hard on the right tires, and it's going to be a challenge to preserve them. So, yeah, it’s going to be an interesting one tomorrow. I’m not expecting anything great, but we’ll give it our best.”
Valtteri Bottas: Qualified: P22 Q1: 1:37.523
“I was hoping that we could be closer to Williams, but they have been out of our reach, particularly on one lap pace. It's been an interesting weekend so far as we've been exploring different setup options because of how bumpy the circuit is. We've explored several directions and in the end, I think we’ve found a good place for the car so that Checo and I can extract the most out of the package we have. We know on paper that the race is going to be a challenge for us, but we’re always ready for any opportunities that come our way and if they do, we’ll be sure to put ourselves into the mix.”
Marcin Budkowski, Team Principal
“As a team we have been looking forward to today’s qualifying at our second home race of the season in Austin. It’s been energizing to see so many of our fans during the build up to qualifying today.
“The team executed our plan for qualifying well but it has exposed our current weaknesses in performance and package. Regardless, both Checo and Valtteri drove well to extract the most from the MAC-26. Some of our competitors have grid penalties for tomorrow and our focus will be on looking at the options available to move forward in the race. It will be hot, bumpy and hard for the tires, so our aim is to get both cars to the finish in front of a home crowd.”