Cadillac arrive in Spa in good spirits after both cars completed the full F1 Sprint and Grand Prix distance at the British round. A combined 406km effort that marked another step forward in the American outfit’s rookie F1 campaign. Upgrades at Silverstone moved them away from Aston Martin and closer to the likes of Haas and Williams.
It was a weekend in which reliability, not raw pace, took centre stage. The team will be keen to show that the step up at Silverstone was not a one-off. Cadillac hopes to carry that momentum into Spa, where a fresh round of F1 upgrades for the team will make its first appearance on the car, led by a revised front wing.
“The British Grand Prix was a very positive weekend for us,” says Graeme Lowdon, Team Principal. “Completing the full Grand Prix and Sprint distances at the end of a double-header was another step forward in our development and I want to thank the whole of the team. Most pleasing, however, was that we were able to pull away from the back of the grid and race hard against some of the other teams. We would like more of that this weekend in Belgium.”
That appetite for progress carries straight into car development. Spa marks the next stage of Cadillac’s F1 upgrades programme, and the front wing due to arrive this weekend sits at the centre of it. It is also, by some distance, the longest circuit on the calendar, which adds another layer to how the team reads its data across the session.
Front wing leads Cadillac’s F1 upgrades for Spa
Sergio Pérez, who impressed alongside Valtteri Bottas at Silverstone, is already turning his attention to one of the most demanding circuits on the calendar. The Mexican has flagged Spa’s high-speed nature as the real test for this stage of Cadillac’s F1 upgrades, particularly through the Eau Rouge compression that defines the lap.
“After good, competitive performance at Silverstone, we’re ready for Spa, which is a very different challenge from every other circuit on the calendar. Not only is it much longer, your heart always beats a little faster there. It is a very high-speed circuit, and unusual in that it has negative-g when you go through the Eau Rouge compression.
“It is going to be interesting for energy management and ride, plus tyre management, so we will make this a focus of our attention on Friday, as well as analysing the developments we will bring.”
Bottas looks to build on Silverstone form
Valtteri Bottas will be looking for similar continuity, both in the way the car performs and in how the factory’s development work translates onto the circuit. He sees Spa as a truer test of the F1 Cadillac upgrades than raw straight-line speed alone would suggest, given how much the fastest sections demand of both car and driver.
Confirming those F1 Cadillac upgrades hold up at Spa’s high average speed will be one of the clearer signals of progress this weekend.
“It was good to complete the distance at Silverstone, and I felt we were making real progress with both our reliability and our competitive position. I’m eager now to see how that has moved forward in the last two weeks. We will have to work hard this weekend to maximise our potential.
“We think of Spa as being all about speed, but really, it’s more balanced than that. It’s a circuit where the driver really needs confidence in the car to commit in the fastest corners, and to run the curbs at high-speed. We’ve been doing a huge amount of work at the factory to ensure we turn-up this weekend with a good baseline set-up, that will enable us to get the most out of practice and progress from there.”
Both cars will run the new-look front wing from first practice onward, giving Cadillac an early look at how this round of F1 upgrades holds up around Spa before qualifying and the race. If the pace matches what Silverstone showed, the team’s growing confidence heading into the Belgian weekend will not be misplaced.
