Formula 1's unexpected April schedule break will help the Cadillac team address reliability issues and aerodynamic shortcomings, according to Valtteri Bottas. The cancellations of Bahrain and Jeddah races due to the Iran war create a five-week gap between the Japanese Grand Prix and Miami.
Valtteri Bottas believes the Formula 1 calendar's unforeseen April break offers significant advantages to the new Cadillac team. With the Bahrain and Jeddah rounds cancelled amid the ongoing Iran war, a five-week interval now separates next week's Japanese Grand Prix from the early May Miami race. Bottas stated, “I think it's actually quite beneficial for us. We have more time to sort things out – because we still have issues, you know, we still haven't had a trouble-free week – and also more time to gain more performance. And everyone has been working flat out for months now, so actually maybe for some people to have a bit of a breather as well, this is good.” Cadillac has faced mechanical challenges early in the season. Fuel system problems ended Bottas' Australian GP and affected Sergio Perez during Melbourne free practice, while also sidelining Perez from sprint qualifying in China. Both drivers lost a mirror at Albert Park. Operationally, Cadillac recorded the second-slowest pitstops in Melbourne and the slowest in China, with Perez's sprint pitstop taking 25.793 seconds—2.6 seconds slower than others, barring Audi's wheelgun failure. The team prioritized safety and early production for its debut, conducting a shakedown on 16 January, 19 days ahead of Williams. This resulted in a basic design lacking aerodynamic load, particularly at the rear. Perez noted ahead of Shanghai, “We anticipated, we knew that. I mean, this car was done a long time ago. It's very basic; they had to do it very early, the sign-off. So we knew that the start was always going to be difficult.” Bottas added, “Especially on the aero side, we're lacking quite a lot of load, especially on the rear end of the car, which now has kind of boxed us in with this mechanical set-up a little bit... But once we start gaining some more load, then there's a bit more to come.” Cadillac introduced diffuser and mirror stay updates for China, with further developments planned for Japan and a larger package post-break.
