Cadillac prioritizes ‘debugging’ after 44-lap opening day of F1 testing

Cadillac opted to prioritize finding solutions to specific problems rather than track time during the opening day of the Barcelona shakedown, according to team principal Graeme Lowdon.

Valtteri Bottas managed 33 laps in the morning on Monday before handing over to Sergio Perez, who only completed 11 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya himself. Of the seven teams to run, just Audi – with 27 laps – completed fewer than Cadillac, but Lowdon said learning how to resolve issues is crucial during this week’s test.

“The key thing for us is exactly that, debugging,” Lowdon said. “We could have run more laps this afternoon, or we could have looked to solve certain problems, make sure that they're solved and tick those off the list. And that's the most important thing.

“We're very lucky this year in that we've got a shakedown week this week and then two tests in Bahrain, so we're very much focused on using this time in Barcelona to shake down all these systems, iron out all of the various gremlins and then be on the front foot for Bahrain.

“For us, it is very much a shakedown week this week. We had a really good day at Silverstone last week, but now we're just working steadily through all of the different car systems. As you know these cars are incredibly complicated, but I'm really, really pleased with the progress that we've made. We've got more work to do this week but all in a structured way, so I'm really happy with the way things are shaping up.”

Cadillac was taking part in its first group session in Formula 1 as a new team joining the grid this year, but Lowdon says there was little time spent reflecting on that achievement.

“It is a big step and it's OK to allow ourselves a tiny little bit of time to feel the emotion, but I think the overriding feeling is it feels like business as usual as a proper Formula 1 team, and we're getting stuck into the same work that everybody else is," he said.

“Huge respect to everybody in the team. I'm so lucky to be in this situation where I can work with so many really talented people both here at the track, back at Silverstone, back in Indianapolis and in Charlotte as well, and it's a great feeling to be really feeling as if we're on our way now.”

Lowdon’s comments were echoed by Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley after Gabriel Bortoleto stopped early in the day and completed limited mileage.

“We had a technical issue with the car, we spotted it, decided to switch the car off on track,” Wheatley said. “We've got plenty of testing this year and we wanted to really understand the problem, so we've been carefully analyzing that.

"We’re just getting the car prepped and ready and see what the weather conditions are for tomorrow to see whether tomorrow's the day we'll run.

“It's interesting, because you talk about the run plan and all the teams are facing the same decision. Firstly, have you got the right spare parts to be able to support running? Then, what's the weather condition like?

“I've been talking to other team principals – nobody wants to let a cat out of the bag, I don't either, but it's been very interesting that you have this strategy to make every day about when you run.”