Valtteri Bottas’ return to the Formula 1 paddock already carries the hum of anticipation, but inside Cadillac’s garage the sound is growing louder with every passing lap.
The ten-time Grand Prix winner, back on the grid with the all-new American entry, is watching the team’s infancy evolve in real time – and he likes what he sees.
From the first cautious installation runs to longer stints that now resemble genuine preparation, Bottas describes a project accelerating toward competitiveness rather than merely surviving its early hurdles.
The stopwatch may still show lower midfield times, but the mood inside the camp suggests something more significant: momentum.
Progress Written in Laps, Not Headlines
Cadillac’s arrival as Formula 1’s 11th team this season instantly reshaped the grid, pairing Bottas with fellow returnee Sergio Perez in a line-up packed with experience.
Their first public outings – a guarded Barcelona shakedown followed by the opening Bahrain test – were less about outright speed and more about proving the car could run reliably.
On paper, Perez’s 1m38.828s and Bottas’ 1m39.150s placed them 14th and 16th respectively, but inside the cockpit, the numbers told only part of the story.
Bottas’ excitement is rooted in the incremental gains that only drivers and engineers truly notice – the smoother gear shifts, cleaner telemetry traces, and the quiet disappearance of early gremlins.
“It’s good that we are here, we’re running the car,” Bottas told the official F1 website on Wednesday. “That’s really step one.
“We’re making some decent runs, we’re learning with each run, so that is important. We still have many days ahead of us until Melbourne, and we still have lots of work to do.
“That’s where we are. But it’s exciting. And it’s nice to see that we are really progressing each day when we are on track with the car.”
Those words capture a team still climbing the first rungs of a very tall ladder – but climbing nonetheless. Each outing appears less about “debugging” and more about exploration, a subtle but crucial shift for a newborn operation.
Closing In on Delivering Speed
Next month’s Australian Grand Prix looms as both a deadline and a motivator. For a brand-new constructor, simply arriving prepared can be a victory in itself.
Bottas is well aware of how thin the margin can be, and he credits the team’s early mileage with keeping disaster at bay.
“It’s so important to be at the Barcelona shakedown and here and running the car,” he added. “If we had missed any days, we would definitely have been in trouble in Melbourne.
“So, I think the team has done an incredible job so far to be on time.
“But, step by step, instead of problem solving and debugging, the focus will turn to performance. That’s what we need to keep finding in the next weeks, months and years.”
That transition – from simply making the car function to making it fast – is the pivotal moment every new team chases. For Cadillac, Bottas believes it is arriving sooner rather than later. The emphasis, he insists, is already tilting toward extracting speed rather than extinguishing fires.
Asked if Cadillac can look at pushing the car more next week, he said: “I think so. We’ve got to be ready to go racing. We’re not here to only debug and solve issues.
“We’re here to race, so we’re going to try and focus on performance, try and learn about the car, which is a completely new beast to everyone in the team.”
It is the language of a driver who senses potential rather than pressure. Cadillac may still be writing its opening chapter, but Bottas’ enthusiasm suggests the storyline is beginning to shift – from introduction to intention, from testing to targeting.
With each passing lap, the American newcomer appears less like a participant finding its feet and more like a contender preparing to stretch its legs.
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