Bottas and Perez, experience for Cadillac
For the start of its adventure in F1, Cadillac bet everything on Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, who were supposed to act as mentors for a young and inexperienced team. The experiment had not gained the consensus of everyone within the paddock, but the move by the American team was less risky than one might have thought.
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Cadillac is still at zero points, but it should never be forgotten that it built the team in a very short time (only 12 months before debuting on track, team principal Graeme Lowdon was looking for 525 people to join the team). The results, considering this race against time, are far from negligible, especially when you think that Cadillac is bringing continuous updates to the track, was 60 thousandths from Q2 in Monte Carlo, and is regularly ahead of Aston Martin with much fewer resources.
Lowdon’s words
Certainly, Perez is performing much better than Bottas, but Lowdon believes that the choice of two experienced drivers was the right one. A choice he would make again today: “My opinion has not changed, and the last few months spent together have strengthened it,” said the Briton to AUTOHebdo. “Besides the typical challenges of a debuting team, we had to face those arising from the new regulations. There are many new things to manage simultaneously and the contribution of Valtteri and Sergio has been fundamental. They help us at all levels“.
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“They have been part of world champion teams, and if Cadillac has managed to grow so quickly in recent weeks it is largely thanks to them.” Words that give a different perspective on Bottas, who has often been considered shaky for 2027 by the rumors circulating in the paddock. It remains to be seen how well the Finn will be able to work at the technical direction level and the progress of Colton Herta in F2. The American is not shining (he is 17th) and does not seem destined to collect the points he lacks on the Super License to debut in F1. Should Bottas no longer convince Lowdon and Herta not yet be ready, Leonardo Fornaroli (whom McLaren wants to place in a lower-tier team, possibly Haas) and Rafael Câmara would be ready to step up, not forgetting that the American team’s reserve – Guanyu Zhou – has already driven in F1, precisely as Bottas’s teammate in Kick Sauber.
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