Valtteri Bottas has wasted zero time easing into his next act. Within hours of the Abu Dhabi season finale, the Finn was already at Cadillac’s Silverstone base, climbing into a new seat fit and meeting the people charged with building his way back onto the Formula 1 grid in 2026.
It’s the first proper look at Cadillac’s F1 project with one of its race drivers in the room, and a neat marker of intent from a team that plans to announce itself to the wider world with something very American: a Super Bowl spot. Bold, loud, and hard to miss — exactly the kind of splash a newcomer needs when the sport rolls into a fresh ruleset.
Bottas, paired with Sergio Perez in what will be one of the most experienced line-ups on the 2026 grid, sounded energised by the reset. “I’m excited to be starting as a Cadillac Formula 1 Team driver – finally,” he said, calling it a proud moment and the start of a new chapter. He talked up the value of getting the small things right early — the seat fit, the faces, the processes — because those “first steps” become the foundation when the car rolls out for testing. In his words: momentum matters.
Behind the scenes, the momentum’s been building for a while. Perez has already had running in closed tests as part of his onboarding, and Cadillac’s technical programme is ramping towards the new engine and chassis package that will define the 2026 era. For a clean-sheet team, that experience bank — Bottas’ development mileage, Perez’s racecraft — is a safety net and a weapon.
Team principal Graeme Lowdon struck the same chord. “It’s great to finally have Valtteri on board and integrated with the team,” he said. There’s been a long runway to this point, and seeing one of the principals of the project literally buckle into the car is a milestone for a group that’s still stitching together departments, tools and people. Lowdon called F1 “the greatest team game in the world,” and he’s right — the early phase is as much about building a culture as it is about writing laptimes on a whiteboard.
Cadillac’s debut on-track will come at the first pre-season test of 2026, a behind-closed-doors gathering at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya running 26–30 January. That privacy window will be useful: new power units, heavier energy recovery demands, and trimmed-down aero loads mean everyone’s learning on their feet. Expect a lot of correlation work between simulation and reality — and a lot of engine maps being scribbled and re-scribbled in the garage.
If the Super Bowl launch is the headline-grabber, the substance sits in weeks like this one. Seat fits aren’t glamorous, but they’re the handshake between driver and machine. Comfort equals confidence, and confidence feeds consistency. Bottas knows that better than most. He’s now the calm centre of a start-up that has to do in 18 months what rivals have iterated over decades.
There’s an American swagger to the plan, sure, but what stands out is the discipline. Get the driver in. Get the basics right. Keep your powder dry until Barcelona. Then, finally, see where the cadence of this new team — and this new rules cycle — puts Cadillac on the F1 grid.
