Cadillac is about to end the development of the 2026 car to focus its resources on next season’s project. Valtteri Bottas confirmed that this shift in focus will happen soon, as the team seeks to leverage the learnings from its first year in Formula 1.
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The North American team is still preparing some performance updates for the current car, but Bottas made it clear that these will not be changes capable of completely transforming the scenario: “We still have something coming in terms of performance, but nothing magical, nothing huge,” said the Finn.
According to the driver, Cadillac needs to soon decide when to direct all efforts to the 2027 car: “Obviously, there comes a point when we need to shift our focus 100% to next year, which is coming,” he said, highlighting that continuing to advance will be possible, although major evolutions are increasingly difficult as other teams also introduce their latest updates.
Bottas and Sergio Perez have been directly involved in the car’s development with their feedback, while Cadillac has gradually progressed during the first half of the season. The team even managed to surpass Aston Martin in the order of strength before the rival presented an improved package at the Hungarian GP.
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Although still far from the most competitive positions, Bottas positively evaluated the response to Cadillac’s updates: “Everything we brought to the car made it faster, made it better, so that is really positive for a new team,” he added.
The Finn highlighted that the functioning of parts is not guaranteed in Formula 1 and considered this aspect especially promising for the future: “We haven’t taken huge steps, but we have seen progress,” concluded Bottas, pointing out that small improvements allowed Cadillac to open a gap over Aston Martin when the competitor had not yet updated its car.
For Bottas, this accumulated evolution helps explain the team’s progress throughout the season. Cadillac is now preparing to transition resources to the 2027 project while still hoping to extract some additional performance from its current car.
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