Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Valtteri Bottas says Cadillac’s arrival as Formula 1’s first brand-new team in a decade has given him a level of input he never had at Williams, Mercedes or Sauber, with the Finn directly involved in shaping parts of the 2026 car.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Bottas said the clean-sheet nature of Cadillac’s project has allowed him to work on details that established teams rarely open up to drivers. “I’ve never been part of designing a steering wheel layout, or you know, choosing the exact buttons for the wheels,” he said. “For example, choosing the very own steering ratio I want, stuff like that.”
For Bottas, that freedom comes from joining a team that is not tied to old processes or carryover parts. He said there is “so much more you can do when you are starting as a new team, when you are not carrying any habits or bits from the past,” adding that “you can really be part of designing everything in the car, which is super cool.”
That hands-on role is part of a wider effort to give Cadillac a stable base in its first season on the grid. Bottas has finished two of the first three races, while team mate Sergio Perez has completed all three, and Bottas pointed to reliability as the early priority for a team trying to establish itself. Against that backdrop, he said getting two cars to the flag in China and Japan represented “a strong foundation” for Cadillac to build from.
Bottas believes the experience he and Perez bring should help speed up that process. Perez arrived with front-running knowledge from Red Bull, while Bottas has seen multiple team structures across his spells in F1, and Bottas said that combined perspective matters when a new operation is being built. “I think we have both seen a lot in this sport, we have seen what works with a good team, and we have both also seen what doesn’t quite work,” he said.
He added that both drivers understand what the team and the car need to perform at a high level, and said that shared approach is focused on the bigger picture rather than individual interests. “We are definitely putting the team first ahead of us. That will hopefully help us to improve quicker.”
Bottas also said his year away from a full-time seat helped sharpen his motivation for the Cadillac project. After serving as Mercedes’ reserve driver in 2025, he said the break changed his perspective on racing. “[It] has made a big difference,” Bottas said. “I appreciate being part of the sport, I appreciate the sport, everything around it much more than before.”
He said that renewed appreciation is felt most strongly on race day, in the routine that surrounds a grand prix. The process of preparing on Sunday, getting into the car, standing on the grid and hearing the national anthem now carries more weight for him than it did before, and Bottas believes that mindset can help him as Cadillac tries to turn an encouragingly reliable start into quicker progress.