Valtteri Bottas Reveals Bizarre Cadillac Issue Behind Miami Grand Prix Penalty

A pitlane speeding penalty is usually driver error – a lapse of concentration. But Valtteri Bottas‘ drive-through at the Miami Grand Prix can be blamed on an interesting issue with his Cadillac steering wheel.

The FIA stewards clocked Bottas at 89.5 km/h in the pit lane, 9.5 km/h over the 80 km/h limit. And with the FIA being black and white with this sort of stuff, it was a closed and shut case.

The Finn later explained it was down to the tactility of the buttons on his steering wheel, a component that the team is working on updating.

“I pressed the speed limiter button in the pitlane, but apparently not hard enough,” he said. “We still lack sensitivity and feedback on certain buttons, so that’s another area we’re working on.”

When pressed on how difficult the fix would be, Bottas wasn’t worried by his expectations: “It’s a known problem and one that Checo and I have already pointed out. They’re too hard to press. We just don’t have the new buttons yet. So, hopefully that will be the case from the next race onwards.” He added: “That’s one of the things that happens when you’re starting out as a new team.”

The Upgrade Picture Is More Encouraging

The button issue wasn’t the only hardware inconsistency Bottas flagged. While he said “the upgrades worked,” he believes Cadillac is still dealing with production quality issues across some of its components, which has introduced inconsistencies into the package.

Miami saw nine separate upgrade items for Cadillac, spanning the front wing endplate, front wing flap, floor body, diffuser, and rear suspension among others. Still, the car-level progress is real.