Valtteri Bottas pokes fun at Aston Martin as Adrian Newey admits Australian GP limits

Valtteri Bottas is back, everyone

Valtteri Bottas used the first FIA press conference of the 2026 season to poke fun at the Aston Martin team, joking that drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were his picks for a championship win.

It's been over a year since we've been treated to Bottas's dry humour in a press conference after he performed reserve driver duties for Mercedes in 2025. But with the driver's vast experience now being employed by Cadillac, Formula 1's 11th team of the 2026 season, we welcome the fan-favourite back to the grid.

With a few days of testing under his belt, the Finn was asked to name his top pick for a championship win this season, and his answer didn't disappoint.

“If I have to guess something now, I'm going to say Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso," Bottas joked. "And... George Russell," he added. "I think they [Mercedes] were sandbagging so they're gonna beat Aston at the very end in Abu Dhabi."

Aston Martin arrives in Melbourne as the weakest team on the grid, with the Silverstone outfit confirming that it will be restricting the number of laps their drivers will complete this weekend due to intense vibrations caused by the Honda power unit.

"What we have achieved for this weekend [is a solution] that tested on the dyno over the course of the weekend that has successfully, significantly reduced the vibration going into the battery," team principal Adrian Newey said. "But what is important to remember is the power unit is the source of the vibration, it's the amplifier.

"The chassis is, in that scenario, the receiver. A carbon chassis is a naturally stiff structure with very little damping, so the transmission of that vibration into the chassis, we haven't made any progress on."

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

The famed car designer added that the vibrations aren't only affecting the drivers, but they're also shaking the cars apart - a cause of some of the reliability issues seen during Bahrain's testing. But their driver health is, unsurprisingly, most important.

"We are going to have to be very heavily restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration and improve the vibration at source," Newey said, referring to the power unit.

While Mercedes and Russell - Bottas's realistic pick for the championship - look very promising heading into the season, Aston Martin's issues are staggering.