Valtteri Bottas is experiencing a side of Formula 1 he never really had access to in more than a decade inside Williams, Mercedes, and Sauber: a blank sheet of paper. At Cadillac, Formula 1's newest team, the Finn has found himself signing off on details that, in a more established operation, would have been decided by engineers years before the driver arrived.
"Well, I've never been part of designing a steering wheel layout or, you know, choosing the exact buttons for the wheels and uh, you know, example, choosing the very own steering ratio," Bottas said. "I want stuff like that. You know, there's so much more you can do when you start as a new team when you're not really carrying any habits or or bits from from the past. You know, you can really be part of designing everything in in in a car, which is really cool."
That creative input is part of what Bottas and teammate Sergio Perez are explicitly there to provide. Cadillac's bet is that two drivers who have lived inside front-running operations can lift a start-up team through some of the shortcuts the best squads have spent two decades earning.
"We do. You know, I think we've both seen a lot in the sport. you know, we've seen uh what works with a good team. We've also both seen what doesn't quite work, you know. So, we've seen the good and bad," Bottas said. "I think we have good understanding on what the team needs, what the car needs, how the team needs to operate to to be at the best level. So, I think together also with the mindset that we both have that we are definitely putting the team first instead of us and that's going to hopefully help us to improve quicker."
Bottas is openly bullish about how fast that progression can come, pointing to Cadillac's rate of improvement between its first shakedown and its opening races as evidence that the trajectory is steep.
"It should be and I think it will be. You know, we've already come a long way from from the first shakedown. It's going to be pretty rapid improvement from here and me and Czecho from every session. There's always pretty long list of things we we can do better," he said.
Independent observers have echoed that read. Cadillac brought an updated diffuser package in the run-up to Suzuka and has quietly been scoring better race finishes as the opening stretch of the season progresses.
"From the first GP to now, they've been able to finish races. Their pace has continuously gotten a little bit better. They're adding little updates here and there, but a big package is expected from Miami," one analyst noted.
For Bottas personally, the Cadillac seat is also the end of an enforced year on the sidelines, something he says has fundamentally changed the way he turns up on a Sunday morning.
"Absolutely. You know, for me, it's made a big difference. Like I appreciate being part of the sport. I appreciate the sport, everything around it much more than than before," Bottas said of his time away. "And and especially like the racing side of it. Like for me the whole process on Sunday, you know, the you get ready, you jump in the car, get to the grit, you do the national anthem, you know, you just have this appreciation um of everything that we are so lucky to be there, you know. So um for me it has made a huge difference and I think it can help me in the years ahead."
He also used his visibility at Cadillac to stamp out one of F1's oldest new-team debates — the question of who is the designated number one.
"No number twos or if they're number twos," Bottas said of the dynamic between him and Perez.
When Bottas is not at the factory or at a grand prix, he is increasingly based at a property in McLaren Vale, South Australia, that he says has become a genuine second home.
"Well, it's um to me this is paradise. You know, you got I I feel like I have everything I need here. It's so nice to have a place in Australia. My better half, Tiffany is from Australia and yeah, I've been looking for a place for a couple of years now," he said of the vineyard.
Cadillac is still, by any honest measure, the newest and least-proven team on the 2026 grid. But between Bottas's unusual input into the basic design of the car, the team's quiet updates path and the shared experience its drivers bring from dominant eras, the ingredients for a faster-than-expected climb are genuinely in place.
Source: youtube.com