Bottas admits Cadillac faces ‘a mountain to climb’ after Barcelona shakedown

Valtteri Bottas admitted Cadillac has “a bit of a mountain to climb” after its first shakedown running in Barcelona, but the team was solving problems with every run it undertook.

Cadillac is the first all-new team to enter Formula 1 in a decade, Haas being the last to do so in 2016, and the team is understood to have taken in 164 laps around Barcelona in its three days of allocated running, according to unofficial lap counts.

Bottas: Cadillac F1 reaches milestone but still ‘a bit of a mountain to climb’

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As the sports newcomers, it has been expected that Cadillac may run towards the back of the field in the 2026 season, as it establishes itself on the grid and puts all-new working practices into place.

The team has the benefit of having hired the third-most experienced driver pairing on the grid in terms of race starts, with Bottas teaming up with Sergio Perez.

The as-yet unnamed chassis took to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last week for its first testing laps, and while a reported 164 laps marks a respectable tally, it was the second-lowest among the teams in attendance.

Nonetheless, the sight of a new team turning in its first testing laps in Formula 1 is always a landmark moment, with the Finn revealing his pride in his new team for getting on track.

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Put to him that it has been a ‘milestone’ for Cadillac in Barcelona, Bottas replied: “It has been, and also my first time driving for Cadillac Formula 1 team, and it’s great.

“I mean, it is the problem-solving phase of the team, it’s the first time we’re properly running the car. So it’s been a really valuable, really important week.

“I think biggest takeaways are that, well, first of all, I’m proud of everyone working so hard and being here with the car. But also, first takeaway is that we still have a long way to go.

“We still have lots of problems to solve and a bit of a mountain to climb, but we’re getting there step by step.

“Each run, we’re getting better and more together as a team. Each run, we’re solving issues and going forward. So that’s good.”

Cadillac, like its new rivals, has six more days’ worth of testing in Bahrain from 11-13 February, and a week later, on 18-20 February, to gather as much data as possible and prepare itself for the new campaign.

In the time leading up to the tests, Bottas revealed he would head over to Cadillac’s simulator and pore through the data it has collected, with upgrades potentially in line to be brought to Sakhir.

“It’s going to be busy between here and Bahrain for the whole team,” he said.

“I’m going actually pretty much straight from here to the simulator in the US, try to do some correlation work, try to prepare for Bahrain.

“As a team, we have now lots of data, finally, of the new car, so we have lots of analysis to do, maybe even build some new parts before Bahrain. So it’s going to be hectic, but we’re going to be ready for Bahrain.”

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