2026 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX — RACE REPORT
October 25, 2026 — Austin, Texas — The Cadillac Formula 1® Team completed its second home Grand Prix with Checo Pérez crossing the line in P19.
The Mexican driver ran a one-stop strategy, pitting on Lap 25 to switch from soft to hard tires before bringing the MAC-26 home at the end of the 56-lap race at the Circuit of the Americas.
Valtteri Bottas spent much of the race running alongside his teammate before a suspected power-unit issue forced him to retire on Lap 48.
The team will now regroup ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday, November 1, in just one week’s time.
Checo Pérez:
Started: P18 Finished: P19 Fastest Lap: 1:41.680
“Unfortunately, the weekend has been a bit challenging. Overall, I think there are positives we can take from it. We just need to keep working and learning from the experience. I think it’s really track-dependent, and during the race, I was surprised that we were a little closer than expected, so we just have to keep building on that.
“Now I’m really looking forward to Mexico. It’s always incredibly special to race in front of my home crowd, and this year will be even more meaningful as I celebrate my 300th Grand Prix. I’m excited to share that moment with the fans and hopefully give them something to cheer about. We’ll keep pushing and aim to have a stronger weekend.”
Valtteri Bottas:
Started: P19 Finished: DNF Fastest Lap: 1:42.012
“The [suspected power unit] issue was really sudden and happened during braking into Turn 1. It started to sound bad and then I had the engine cutting in and out when trying to get on power. We don't know what the issue is yet. Up until then though, everything was going to plan. We decided to split the strategy across the cars - I started with the hard, Checo with the soft - and I think it was good to try. At certain times during the race it felt like we were actually a bit closer to the others on pace than what I thought we would be, so that was a positive we can take heading into the coming races.”
Marcin Budkowski, Team Principal:
“Today presented a challenging race and we wanted to deliver a stronger result in front of our home fans. There were some encouraging signs in our race pace, with both drivers feeling closer to the competition than we had anticipated. We split the starting tire strategies to give us options in the race and learn more about the compounds for the best possible team result.
”Unfortunately, Valtteri’s race ended with a suspected power unit issue, which we need to investigate fully. Checo brought the car home despite losing time in traffic. The team is operating much better at the track and I am happy with the progress, we just need a little bit more pace now to go fight with the teams ahead of us. With just a week until Mexico, our focus quickly shifts to preparing for another special weekend for the team, with Checo racing at home and celebrating his 300th Grand Prix.”