Why Perez's 'almost' point in Monaco shows how far Cadillac have come already

Sergio Perez was so close to scoring Cadillac's first Formula 1 point in Monaco, but his P10 finish was not to be after being handed a post-race penalty for a start infringement.

That dropped the Mexican to 15th and last at the end of a chaotic race, but the fact he was in contention for a point shows just how far Cadillac have come in their first six races in F1. The American team were the first fully new entrant into the sport for a decade – and they knew they faced a tough ask to be competitive in their first season.

In Melbourne, Perez was last of the classified finishers and was three laps down while team mate Valtteri Bottas failed to finish with mechanical woes. Both were one lap down in China, while Perez finally finished on the lead lap in Suzuka.

But while progress was clearly being made as the team continued to gather data and bring upgrades to the car, points were a long way away. Neither car has yet made it out of Q1 in Qualifying, with Perez’s P18 in Monaco his joint-best result of the season over one lap, although he managed 17th in Sprint Qualifying in Montreal.

If Cadillac existed in isolation, you could make a case for them climbing up the order bit by bit. But the rest of the field have not stood still – closest rival’s Aston Martin have solved their vibration issue and are building on reliability, while Williams have also made a step forward and are now in the midst of the midfield pack.

As such, points still seemed out of reach for the American team. But then came Monaco, and a strange race that was punctuated by penalties and retirements.

Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc all failed to finish with a combination of mechanical woes and crashes, opening the door for more midfield runners to score around the streets of Monte Carlo.

With Ollie Bearman and Carlos Sainz also out, suddenly there was an opportunity for someone to take advantage of. Initially it looked like Nico Hulkenberg would be the one to score some unlikely points – but the German was handed a post-race penalty for colliding with Sainz, which dropped him out of the points and promoted Perez to P10.

Perez being there or there abouts was in itself highly unlikely after he was penalised with a drive-through penalty for a starting infringement. Replays showed the Mexican lining up in the wrong grid box – there should have been an empty slot after Gabriel Bortoleto was forced into a pit lane start.

After a great start to climb to 14th, Perez pitted for medium tyres and dropped to 16th, before serving his first penalty and winding up 18th. That was where he stayed for much of the race – until the late Safety Car chaos.

As others retired around him, Perez was steadily promoted up the order. He avoided the chaos with Hulkenberg, Sainz and Colapinto in the closing laps, got past old rival Alonso and then inherited a further place when George Russell served his own drive-through penalty.

That left Perez P11 at the flag, which became P10 almost immediately with Hulkenberg’s 10-second penalty being announced by Race Control.

But alas it was not meant to be, with the stewards reviewing footage from the red flag restart and deeming Perez at fault for his front right wheel being outside his grid box. A 10-second penalty was applied, which dropped him to 15th and last.

“After the red flag restart, Checo drove fantastically well to make up several positions on the road – it was a real shame that the penalty dropped us back as he fought like he was going for the win,” Team Principal Graeme Lowdon said afterwards.

The fact that Perez was able to keep up with the midfield runners in the latter stages – despite Kimi Antonelli up front showing it was perfectly possible to pull a gap in Monaco – really shows improvement from Cadillac.

As does their Qualifying – Perez was around 1.5s off the lead time in Q1 in Monaco, while back in Australia that number was over three seconds.

All of which points to Cadillac very much heading in the right direction at a much earlier stage of the season than most predicted.