Cadillac team principal Marcin Budkowski explained what Valtteri Bottas needs to do to keep his seat at the team as test driver Colton Herta becomes eligible for a superlicence.
The team confirmed Sergio Perez will continue as one of its drivers next year. It is yet to confirm whether Valtteri Bottas will also get a second season.Budkowski said the team extended Perez’s contract because he’s “been overall the quicker and the better driver this year.” He said Bottas needs to consistently perform at the level he demonstrated in Austin last weekend.
“He’s done a really good race in Austin,” Budkowski told Sky. “He was strong in qualifying, he was strong at the race. That’s what he needs to do, race in, race out.”
Bottas has been puzzled by his inability to match Perez’s pace in some races, says Budkowski, who admitted the difference could be down to the preparation of their two cars.
“It’s actually the question we’re asking ourselves collectively with Valtteri and with the engineering team, because some races we don’t actually see a reason for it in the data,” he said. “Valtteri doesn’t see a reason either in terms of the fact there’s no big issue in the car.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“He’s an experienced race driver, he knows what he can extract from a race car and what he can’t, and he just says ‘I can’t extract more pace from this car’.
“But let’s face it, we’re a new team, this car is not a perfect car. The car has been put together in a very short period of time by a team of people who have never worked together before and from a white sheet of paper.
“We have to accept that we’re not giving these guys the best possible equipment and we don’t have as a team enough strength and depth to have full certainty that the equipment we have is perfect. So we’re looking at it together, from the team’s side and from the driver’s side and that’s also why we’re taking the time to try to understand exactly what’s going on.”