(Motorsport-Total.com) – While the results of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez don’t appear successful at first glance, Cadillac has a small silver lining in Japan: for the first time, the team experienced a problem-free session!
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“Today there were no problems on my side of the garage for the first time at a race weekend ever,” confirms a visibly satisfied Bottas. And his teammate Perez also had the first day at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka (all sessions in the Formula 1 live ticker) proceed without major difficulties, with some exceptions.
“It seems we’ve reduced the gap to almost all the cars ahead of us somewhat. The gap is a bit smaller than before,” adds the Finn, who was able to reduce his deficit to McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s best time in the second session to around 2.5 seconds, after being 2.8 seconds back in the morning.
The Cadillac driver benefited from a smoothly functioning vehicle. “We were able to focus entirely on performance and setup and didn’t have to deal with troubleshooting,” says Bottas and admits: “That was good.”
Sergio Perez wants to “reduce the gap now”
“I think we’re on track at the moment,” adds Perez, who was overall significantly slower than his teammate. “It’s still early in the season, so I’m satisfied with our current position. At the same time, we’ve improved significantly from the first to the second race.”
“I want it to continue like this,” the Mexican states a clear expectation for his team. “We all want to see massive progress and reduce the gap now.” However, this is not an easy task because the competition is already established, while Cadillac enters as a complete newcomer.
“We really have to give our best now, and now we all have to prove that we can do it as a team,” says Perez, who sees “great potential” if Cadillac makes optimal use of the weekends. The problem-free Friday was a first step.
The situation was quite different in China two weeks ago: “We had many problems there, and I think if we can make better use of our weekends in the future, we’ll be in very good shape,” says Perez, who according to Cadillac advisor Mario Andretti was still “a little bit rusty.”
Valtteri Bottas: New Cadillac update works
Bottas is also convinced: “I think both in lap time and race pace we’re still a bit behind Williams, but seem to be ahead of Aston Martin,” is his verdict on Friday. As one of the few teams, Cadillac brought an update to Japan, namely an optimized diffuser.
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“I have the feeling we’ve gained some downforce and stability,” Bottas sums up. “We still have quite a bit behind the top teams, but at least we’re going in the right direction. Now we know again what we need to focus on.”
“With the new parts, everything works as I expected.” Driving in Suzuka hasn’t changed much with the new energy management. “For me it’s very similar to before. I don’t see a big difference,” says the Finn.
“The strongest feeling I had was when clipping on the back straight after the 130R, but apart from that the driving feel is still great and fun.” The FIA made an adjustment for qualifying to reduce “super-clipping.”
Symonds reveals what Cadillac can still improve
Cadillac advisor Pat Symonds speaks of a “quite encouraging” practice session on Friday. “I feel like we’re improving every week and with every session, and we’re understanding the car better and better,” explains the Brit. “Both drivers are quite satisfied with the balance.”
“Of course we need a bit more grip to improve lap times. But apart from the collision in the first free practice, which set us back a bit in the second session, it was a quite smooth and really good day.”
Regarding the new diffuser, Symonds adds that it should improve downforce at the rear axle and especially make it more consistent. “We haven’t fully analyzed everything yet, but the drivers seem to think the car is quite well balanced,” reveals the experienced Formula 1 engineer.
The balance between high and low speeds as well as between low and high fuel loads is overall very successful. “That’s a very positive aspect for the future,” emphasizes the Brit. “If we can now bring a bit more downforce to the car, I think we can work our way a bit more into the midfield.”
However, these are “incremental improvements,” meaning small, targeted progress. “You don’t just increase downforce on the car, but specifically in the right places,” explains Symonds. “And I think we’re beginning to understand or already understand where we need to do that.”
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