Returning F1 winner has bold outlook for new team: ‘We’re not just here to debug’

Returning Formula 1 race winner Valtteri Bottas believes Cadillac can start to think about car performance soon and is not “just here to debug” in testing.

Cadillac joins the F1 grid this year as the 11th team, bringing ex-Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas and former Red Bull runner Sergio Perez back to the series.

The squad made it to the Barcelona shakedown late last month and enjoyed a productive opening day of the first official Bahrain test.

Perez was the fastest of the pair in 14th on a 1m38.828s after 58 laps, while Bottas was 16th on a 1m39.150s having totalled 49 tours.

“It’s good that we are here, we’re running the car,” Bottas told the official F1 website.

“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.”

Bottas: ‘We’ve got to be ready to go racing’

Bottas feels Cadillac’s current mileage is so far sparing it from being “in trouble” come the Australian Grand Prix.

However, he feels Cadillac can begin to focus on performance gains in next week’s Bahrain test.

“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.”

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.”