Valtteri Bottas: Cadillac’s first F1 test about "debugging" 2026 cars

New Cadillac driver Valtteri Bottas hinted that problems struck all teams during the opening day of testing for the 2026 Formula 1 season - claiming the purpose of running is to ‘debug’ the 2026 cars. 

Monday kickstarted a five-day shakedown at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, but little is known about the action due to it being behind closed doors with no release of lap times and local security even turning away those who try to approach the venue.

This comes as a result of the forthcoming regulation changes, where a car's chassis becomes lighter and smaller with more emphasis on electric power. The result is that everything promises to look vastly different in 2026. 

The amount of teams in the championship will also change, as Cadillac joins as the 11th squad and will make its debut with a veteran driver pairing of Bottas and Sergio Perez.

When asked to sum up the opening day of running in Barcelona, Bottas told F1 TV: “It was cold. Early morning, it's quite hard to get the tyres to work here, as we know, but as the temperature picked up, things got a bit better, but we had some issues throughout the day.

“It's debugging, that's why we're here and it seems like every team had some issues. It's just now really figuring out those and then getting more and more running each day, but it's just great to be here and in the car.”

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac

The 10-time grand prix winner, who has previously raced for Williams, Mercedes and Sauber, is not worried by the issues that may arise, as the purpose of the test isn’t to necessarily claim the fastest lap.

Instead it is to understand more about the new regulations, especially at Cadillac where everything is new ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on 6-8 March.

“It's definitely a big difference to before,” said 36-year-old Bottas. “The cars, they handle different, you have a bit less load, especially in the high-speed corners.

“The PU, you have so much more torque out of the corners, but then you have the battery to manage and again, for Ferrari [Cadillac’s engine supplier], this is the first proper day of running with their power units, so naturally there is a learning curve.

“So, still lots to learn, lots to improve, but it's quite a challenge for every team and priority list now is get more laps each day.

“I think I got a bit more than 30 laps today, some of them just kind of installs and stuff, but we need to get some proper running in, get the mileage in, and make sure we get a reliable package for race one.”

LIVE: F1 Barcelona pre-season testing - Day 1

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