Sergio Perez shares Cadillac Baku plan as 'painful' prediction made

Sergio Perez is hopeful Cadillac will finally deploy the new upgraded Ferrari engine for the first time at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. 

Ferrari introduced its first ADUO-assisted upgrade at the Italian Grand Prix with both works drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc taking the new unit, as did Oliver Bearman at other Ferrari customer Haas.

Esteban Ocon and both Cadillac drivers have not yet taken the upgraded unit, which aims to eradicate some of the straight-line speed deficit the unit has compared to the Mercedes HPP design. 

Cadillac remains without a point 14 races into its debut season, with the best result being 13th for Valtteri Bottas in China, with Perez's own best being 14th in Barcelona and at Silverstone, although he did finish 10th in Monaco for one point before being stripped due to post-race penalty.

As the team looks to progress continually, Perez feels that deciding to take the available upgrade will be key. 

"Baku is one of those races where you just have to put everything together and see what happens," Perez told media, including RacingNews365. 

"I really hope that we are able to put the new engine in the car and make a bit of a step because we really need a little bit more. 

"It is the plan at the moment. 

"I think it is very clear what we're lacking: load and [too much] drag. But I was with the engineers, and there seems to be a very, very strong progress and a very strong direction going forward.

"So I'm really optimistic for what will come, and it will probably be a very painful end of the season as it's been in the first half, but that was expected, so I am pleased with how things are going."

Bottas echoes Perez

Bottas was unsure about whether both cars would take the engine upgrade, as he detailed where the MAC-26 was not "robust enough."

"We know we need to improve. The car is still not robust enough, and we need to make it a lot faster," he said.

"The [tyre] degradation [in the Spanish GP] highlights how much load we are lacking and we're sliding way more than the competition. 

"I think in the beginning we can be there, but then as the race progresses, the deg gets worse, but actually, for the next event, I'm more hopeful that we can be there. 

"In Baku, the only high-speed corners are to flat out, and so otherwise it's slow and medium speed corners."