Bottas tested Cadillac's 2026 challenger today at Barcelona, along with various other teams and drivers. In the morning session, the Finn went sixth fastest out of the seven drivers on track, but Cadillac crucially went quicker than Audi in the first session, albeit just under six seconds slower than the fastest time, which was set by Isack Hadjar, who was testing Red Bull's RB22.

Speaking about his return to Formula One, Bottas stated: "It's great to be back, and also with this brand new team in the sport, it's a really unique situation. Really enjoyed getting back on track, this was the first time I've driven this car, so it's just good to be out there."

Bottas continued: "Obviously, performance-wise I wouldn't say much yet, but the main thing is that we got some running done. At the end we got a bit of a longer run, so these are the first steps of debugging and getting everything to work better."

Speaking about the tricky track conditions in the morning session, Bottas said: "It was cold. In the early morning it was quite hard to get the tyres to work here. But, as the temperature picked up, things got a bit better, but we had some issues throughout the day. Like I said, it's debugging, that's why we're here and it seems like every team had some issues."

Hadjar topped the timings on day one for Red Bull, however not all of the teams have arrived or will arrive to the Barcelona test, with Aston Martin running a limited schedule and Williams being forced to sit out of proceedings in Barcelona.

Speaking about the differences between the older and newer cars, Bottas stated: "It's definitely a big difference to before, the cars handle different. You have a bit less load, especially in the high speed corners, the PU, you have so much more torque coming out of the corners, but then you have the battery to manage."

The Finn concluded, saying: "For Ferrari, this is the first proper day of running with their Power Unit, so naturally there's learning curves, so still lots to learn, lots to improve but it's quite a challenge for every team. The priority list now - is to get more laps each day. We need to get some proper running in, get the mileage in and make sure we can get a reliable package for race 1."

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