(Motorsport-Total.com) – Ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, Cadillac, represented by Valtteri Bottas, is showing a very fighting spirit. “We want to regularly be in Q2 this year,” said the 36-year-old on Thursday.
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“That would be good, and apparently we are getting closer to [this goal]. I believe it is only a matter of time until that happens.”
So far, the racing team has not managed to qualify for Q2 even once. For that, at least 16th place in Q1 would be necessary. The best position so far was achieved by Sergio Perez with 17th place in SQ1 in Canada. In the Constructors’ Championship, they are in last place.
Where does Cadillac stand shortly before the halfway point?
When asked by our sister portal Motorsport.com whether they are doing better this year than originally thought, Bottas replied: “We are more or less where we expected to be.”
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“I knew,” said Bottas, “that it would be difficult, but the good thing is that we are also seeing small progress in pace. But one of the biggest issues we still need to work on is race pace.”
Here Bottas emphasizes that compared to qualifying, their performance in the race is still somewhat weaker. The reason given by the ten-time Grand Prix winner is overheating tires. “Then it’s also about brake cooling, rim cooling, and all those things.”
“But,” promised the Cadillac driver to Motorsport.com, “upgrades will come for that.”
What upgrade is coming to Cadillac?
Such upgrades are addressed by Perez ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix. Developments on the front wing are supposed to help the team close the gap to the competition. “We need to find that half a second to really compete,” said Perez.
“At the moment we are a bit too far away. And of course, we want to find [that half second] soon, especially when Aston improves their pace in Hungary.”
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According to Perez, the front wing is only a small step on this path. The Cadillac driver admits that not every upgrade has worked as well as the team might have hoped so far.
Disappointment for Perez?
He was also confronted by our sister portal Motorsport.com with the question of how he rates the team’s first half of the season: “Honestly, we are a bit further behind than originally thought,” said Perez. “I had hoped we would make a lot of progress, and we have achieved that.”
“Of course, we racers are impatient. As part of a new team, a new project, you face many different challenges. Even if we are somewhat behind, I believe that if we get everything together and bring a few good upgrades, we can suddenly compete, and that would be great for our first year.”
“It depends on what happens in the next five or six races,” explains Perez. However, the Cadillac driver does not consider championship points realistic this year. “At the moment the gap is too big,” he said.
“Even if you get a good lap, like I did in Silverstone within three laps, we are still miles away. With our pure pace, we are too far from the points. But all I need is for us to be a little closer.”
“Then we can,” Perez assesses, “make the difference in these chaotic races.”
Missed points in Monaco
In the Principality of Monaco, the six-time Grand Prix winner was close to scoring the first point for Cadillac. Only a time penalty after the race cost the former Red Bull driver the sensational result. After all, Perez had not correctly stood in the starting box at the race restart.
In the qualifying duel between Perez and Bottas, the score so far is 9 to 3 in favor of the former Red Bull driver. Nevertheless, Bottas is ahead of the six-time Grand Prix winner in the championship standings. After all, the 36-year-old secured the best result in the team’s history so far with 13th place at the Chinese Grand Prix.
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