Sergio Perez believes his new Cadillac team must look to tackle the "massive challenge" of being able to out-develop its rivals across its debut season.
After pre-season testing, Cadillac appears to be in 10th place of 11 teams in the pecking order, behind Williams but ahead of the troubled Aston Martin squad, with Perez and Valtteri Bottas both returning to grand prix racing following a year on the sidelines.
The as-yet-unnamed Cadillac machine suffered from some teething troubles during testing with sensor issues, but the team was able to record 745 laps in Barcelona and Bahrain, equal to 3,908km or 2,429 miles of running.
Perez, a veteran of 281 grand prix starts, believes that ensuring development is strong throughout the year will be key to the team's success in its first campaign.
"It is about finding weaknesses, and at the moment, the balance of the car feels good," Perez explained to media, including RacingNews365.
"I think we have a balanced car, and we just have to go out there and find a lot of [downforce].
"As a team, big and new, putting all the departments in place is taking some time, and the challenge here will be to out-develop the teams ahead of us.
"That is a massive challenge we will be facing for the year, but I think it is all about foundations for the first half of the year.
"To be able to put the team in the right place to be able to develop the car as quickly as possible, and hopefully, we can catch up pretty soon."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365’s Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding as they look back on last week’s first test in Bahrain and this week’s second test at the same venue. The trio debate Max Verstappen’s criticism of the regulations and whether Formula 1 is facing an identity crisis.
Rather watch the podcast? Then click here!
Explore the latest F1 results and every stat you can imagine - From Max Verstappen to Michael Schumacher and from Ayrton Senna to Lewis Hamilton — explore every stat from the first Grand Prix to the latest race.
Explore the RN365 Stats HubMost read
In this article
Join the conversation!