Cadillac’s debut in Formula 1 is starting to take shape following three days of shakedown testing in Barcelona, where the American team completed 164 laps — a low total compared to most competitors, only surpassing Aston Martin and Williams. As with all teams, the overall impression remains positive, as this week was crucial for gathering data to work on leading up to February 11, the first official test of the season. The mileage was evenly spread across the three days: after completing 110 laps on Monday and Thursday, Valtteri Bottas closed the final day with 54 laps and a best time of 1:20.920, just a few tenths behind Fernando Alonso and almost a second off Audi. The difficulty in stringing together consistent laps highlights that Cadillac is still a rookie team compared to its well-prepared competitors. The maximum completed in a single day was 66 laps, far fewer than Red Bull’s 118.
Cadillac, progress doesn’t erase rivals’ initial superiority: “Long road ahead and many problems to solve”
Valtteri Bottas took the American car out on the final day of the Barcelona shakedown: “It’s been a week of big milestones and my first time driving for Cadillac, and it’s been fantastic. Right now, we’re in problem-solving mode — it’s the first time the car has been on track and it’s been extremely useful and important, but also a milestone. First of all, I’m proud of every person who has worked hard to get the car here. We have a long road ahead, problems to solve, and a mountain to climb, but we’re getting there step by step,” said the Finnish driver, summarizing the team’s current situation.
The team’s biggest strength is undoubtedly its driver pairing, whose vast experience will help bridge some of the initial gaps: “Working with Checo has been great, he’s easy to work with, very calm, and has so much experience that we make an excellent team,” the former Mercedes driver said. “They know how to work with different teams, and we’re benefiting from that. The way the drivers interact and feed information to engineers and mechanics is helping us take advantage of their experience,” commented Team Principal Graeme Lowdon, explaining how the driver lineup benefits the entire team.
The learning curve is especially steep for a debuting brand in Formula 1, and Cadillac is aware of it: “We’ve been working quickly through the usual little problems that arise with a new car, but remember, this is only the fourth day we’ve run a Formula 1 car. Every day we get more efficient, the procedures and the people work well, and I’m extremely happy about that,” said Lowdon. “This week was truly a shakedown, where we tried out different tests and focused less on performance and more on reliability, ensuring we have a stable platform. Mainly, we’ve worked through various programs, tested different parameters to extremes, and solved some issues that appeared. So in Bahrain, the focus will shift to performance rather than reliability,” the Team Principal added at the end of the day.
Cadillac heads to Bahrain: Bottas in the simulator and data to work on
Over the next ten days, the focus will be on analyzing the data collected, with the drivers, including Valtteri Bottas, still playing a key role: “Personally, I’ll go straight from here to the simulator in the United States to work on correlation and prepare for Bahrain. As a team, we finally have a lot of data on the new car, so there’s plenty of analysis to do and maybe even produce new parts before Bahrain.” Cadillac’s operations are split between Silverstone — where the team expected more than 600 people at work at the start of 2026 — and various bases in the United States. A major facility should be completed in the first months of this year in Fisher, near Indianapolis, with additional support from locations in North Carolina and Michigan. The simulator is located in the Charlotte, North Carolina facility.
Cadillac’s inaugural outing in Barcelona serves as a grounded reality check for the American project, proving that while the “mountain to climb” is steep, the team possesses the operational maturity to tackle its initial reliability hurdles. By leveraging the immense experience of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, Cadillac is successfully compensating for its lack of historical data, allowing the engineers to move from basic system validation to complex correlation work in the simulator ahead of the Bahrain tests. The success of the 2026 season for this newcomer will depend on how quickly their multi-continental infrastructure can iterate on these findings, turning a stable but early-stage platform into a competitive midfield contender.
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