Cadillac will soon halt development on its 2026 Formula 1 car to shift its full attention to the 2027 car, according to Valtteri Bottas.
The American squad made its F1 debut this season after years of groundwork.
As anticipated, the team began its inaugural campaign near the back of the grid.
Bottas and teammate Sergio Perez are utilising their extensive F1 experience to guide the team’s technical direction.
While Cadillac plans to introduce a few final components in the coming races, Bottas emphasised that the factory will soon redirect all engineering resources toward next year’s chassis.
“We still have something coming performance-wise, but no magic, nothing huge,” Bottas told media.
“So obviously, there is a point that we need to shift our focus 100 per cent for next year, which is coming soon.
“It means that we can still make progress, but big steps are more challenging to make because everyone is still bringing their last upgrades.”
Cadillac steadily advanced through the opening half of the season.
The team even moved ahead of Aston Martin in the order before the Silverstone-based outfit brought a major update package to the Hungarian GP.
Despite the team’s ongoing battle at the lower end of the midfield, Bottas remains encouraged by Cadillac’s development correlation and operational growth.
Valtteri Bottas reflects on “positive” 2026
“Everything we brought to the car has made it quicker, has made it better, so that’s really positive for a new team,” he said.
“It’s not a guarantee in F1 that the parts that you put in the car actually work. That’s promising for the future. So we’ve made steps.
“We haven’t made like huge steps, but we’ve seen progress. What’s been quite evident, if we compare ourselves to Aston, as they haven’t really been upgrading the car yet, we’ve seen that we’ve been able to get further away from them by quite a good chunk.
“That has come from these small improvements.”
Cadillac’s shift to 2027 is understandable, and gives the team the best chance possible of making up ground on its rivals next season.
READ MORE – Classic Grand Prix given ‘definite’ return verdict by F1 CEO
Discussion about this post