Returning driver Valtteri Bottas talks about his struggles at the start of the 2026 Formula 1 season and emphasizes that things have finally been going better again for the past few weeks
Valtteri Bottas’s Formula 1 comeback has not been a success so far. After the Finn spent the 2025 season as a Mercedes reserve driver, he returned to the grid in 2026 with rookie team Cadillac—but, especially early on, he struggled to meet even his own expectations.
“I think the start was a bit difficult,” Bottas admits, explaining: “At the beginning of the year, we had some issues with the car’s construction and the consistency of the parts. Sometimes I was a bit at a loss as to why I lacked pace.”
In the first half of the season, it was teammate Sergio Perez—who also returned to the top flight after a year’s hiatus—who provided Cadillac’s few highlights. In Monaco, for example, the Mexican finished in the points, even though he ultimately lost his P10 finish due to a retroactive penalty.
Nevertheless, many experts have so far viewed Perez as the stronger Cadillac driver. According to Bottas, however, a turnaround has become apparent in the last few races before the summer break. He emphasizes that they have “always found solutions” to the numerous problems encountered early in the season.
“So that’s good, and in the last few races I’ve gained a lot more confidence in the car,” he reports, explaining: “We’re continuing to develop as a team, and of course, as a driver, you’re always trying to improve. But I finally feel like I’m at the level where I should be racing.”
In fact, Bottas consistently finished ahead of Perez in qualifying during the last three races before the summer break, after what he considered a 2-6 record in the internal qualifying duel between the two Cadillac drivers. But Bottas now feels much more comfortable in the MAC-26.
New regulations also caused problems for Bottas
Regarding his struggles at the start of the season, Bottas explains that he also had to get used to the new regulations first. While this applies to all drivers, Bottas believes he was among those who had to adapt even more than others.
“Actually, more than I might have thought before the start of the season,” he admits, explaining that, especially on tracks like Spa, you have to “really think about the racing lines, the gears, and how to approach the corners: whether to take the corner entry aggressively or focus on the corner exit.”
“That’s changed a lot,” says the Finn, who has been racing in Formula 1 since 2013. “What used to be fast on some tracks isn’t fast anymore. So I definitely had to learn a few new things, especially because of battery management,” he reports.
When asked whether the “new” Formula 1 suits his natural driving style, Bottas answers unequivocally: “No.” He explains: “I’ve had to adjust quite a bit. I feel that, with my driving style, I’ve often placed more emphasis on the exits than on the entries.”
“But with these rules, that can actually be quite a disadvantage, because if you open the throttle too early coming out of a corner, the battery runs out faster. So things like that are completely different,” says the ten-time Grand Prix winner.
In the meantime, however, he has adapted and, by his own account, learned a lot from the situation. In the second half of the season after the summer break, this should be reflected more frequently in the results.
