Valtteri Bottas reflected on a difficult first half of the F1 season for Cadillac, with the Finn suffering yet another failure at the 2026 Hungarian GP.
F1’s latest addition to the grid is still experiencing teething problems, particularly when it comes to reliability. Across the first eleven rounds of the 2026 F1 season, Cadillac has suffered a whopping nine DNFs—five for Bottas and four for teammate Sergio Pérez.
Bottas’s race at the 2026 Hungarian GP ended just 13 laps in, with fire engulfing the car and burning through the Cadillac’s brake lines, forcing the Finn to come to a safe halt in the pitlane. This was the latest in a line of brake-related issues and failures that have been plaguing the fledgling team since the start of the season.
Pérez, who started from the pit lane, also failed to make the chequered flag at the Hungarian GP, retiring due to a suspension failure in the later stages of the race.
Bottas highlights Cadillac learning curve amid Hungarian GP setback
Speaking to the media just before the start of the summer break, Bottas acknowledged the difficulties faced by Cadillac so far this season.
“As a driver I think it was a little bit tricky start,” Bottas said when asked to evaluate his time at Cadillac.
“At the beginning of the year we had many…quite a few issues with car build, consistency of the parts. Sometimes I felt a little bit lost on finding why am I lacking pace but then we eventually always found the answers so that’s good.
“And now the last couple of events I’ve gained a lot more confidence with the car so yeah. I mean it’s…we are improving as a team and as a driver you always try to improve but yeah finally I feel like I’m on the level that I should be driving.”
On adapting to an environment that differed from his previous experience in F1, Bottas added: “It’s different. I learned a lot.
“Well, first of all everyone has learned a lot with the new regs, with the new PUs, how to make the most out of it driving-wise. But yeah of course from this year I’ve learned a lot; there’s been lots of problem solving, lots of debugging and for sure there’s still a mountain of work to do which we always learn from.”
Bottas praises Pérez partnership
Following the 2026 Hungarian GP, Bottas also explained how he and teammate Sergio Pérez have been contributing to Cadillac’s development through their “aligned” feedback and combined experience as veteran F1 drivers.
“Well, the positive thing, our comments has been quite aligned on what we think are the priorities to develop the car for the long term and short term,” he said.
“So I think us being aligned with the feeling of the balance of the car, of the weaknesses, that helps a lot and gives the team confidence that it is what we need.”
He added: “But then sometimes it’s small things Checo has experienced in the past that I’ve experienced in the past with different teams whether it’s about setup, whatever; about diff settings or brake settings or whatever.
“There’s always in certain tracks there’s something that we tend to get some flashbacks from the past that can really, really help to solve issues.”
