Valtteri Bottas set for Cadillac F1 seat after months of rumours

Valtteri Bottas is closing in on a comeback to F1, with the Finn understood to have reached an agreement with Cadillac for F1 2026.

The current Mercedes reserve driver has long been linked with a return to F1 with the arrival of Cadillac next year, and Bottas is understood to be on the verge of signing a deal with Graeme Lowdon’s squad.

Valtteri Bottas set to join Sergio Perez at Cadillac

Additional reporting by Mat Coch.

Ever since Cadillac was confirmed to join the grid in F1 2026, Bottas has been linked with a race drive comeback after becoming a free agent following the end of his contract with Sauber last year.

Finding refuge at Mercedes as a reserve driver with the team he raced for between 2017 and ’21, Bottas is understood to have engaged in talks with Cadillac boss Graeme Lowdon throughout this season.

Multiple sources have indicated to PlanetF1.com that these talks have reached a common ground and that, while Bottas is yet to sign a contract, the Finn is in the final stages of reaching an agreement with Cadillac before putting pen to paper on a deal.

If confirmed, Bottas appears set to join fellow F1 veteran Sergio Perez to form the American squad’s first driver line-up.

As first revealed by PlanetF1.com last week, multiple sources have confirmed that the Mexican driver has also reached an agreement with Cadillac, although, like Bottas, he is yet to formally sign a contract.

The circumstances of both drivers having reached agreements but without formal signing suggest that the situation still needs formalisation, and could be down to the timing of the summer break, perhaps due to the availability of legal witnesses or relevant agents to sign off on the deals.

An announcement to confirm Perez at Cadillac is expected in the week of the Italian Grand Prix. The timing of a Bottas confirmation is less certain, although it’s expected to follow the Perez announcement.

In June, Bottas – now well-known for having a sense of fun on his social media – poked fun at the rumours linking him to Cadillac when he posted a video in which he spots a Cadillac SUV.

“What a nice seat,” he wryly smiled as he placed his hand on the driver’s seat, then added, “I see there are two seats – both seem free.”

A voice off-camera invited him to try sitting down, but Bottas replied, “Not yet!”

Mercedes’ Bradley Lord recently told select media, including PlanetF1.com, that the Finn is a “front-running candidate” for a vacant seat on the grid, but the Brackley-based squad is open to continuing working with him should he be unsuccessful in securing a return to racing.

“We know Valtteri’s priority is to try and find a race seat for 2026,” Lord, Mercedes’ communications chief and team representative, said.

“He’s eminently qualified to do that, and I’d say a front-running candidate in that regard as well.

“If that doesn’t happen, for whatever reason, then we would be very open to looking at how we can continue together.

“But we know his priority is to do that, and we hope that in hindsight, we will have been able to be a platform for him to achieve that goal as well.”

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The signings would give Cadillac an extremely experienced lineup, with Bottas having entered 247 Grand Prix weekends and scored 1797 points in his career so far, while Perez has entered 285 weekends and has a career points score of 1638.

Both are Grand Prix winners with experience of racing for World Champion-level teams, with Bottas contributing to Mercedes’ consecutive Constructors’ titles between 2017 and ’21, while Perez raced for Red Bull between 2021 and ’23, contributing to its title-winning years in 2022 and ’23.

While Bottas and Perez missed out on race cockpits for F1 2025, both made it clear that their sitting out of this year did not mean retirement and were actively seeking a return to the grid.

With over 500 Grands Prix between them, Bottas and Perez would thus represent a solid and dependable driver lineup for Lowdon’s team in its first year; a key factor for a squad unlikely to be at the cutting edge of performance, whether technical or operationally, at its first try.

Lowdon thus appears to have plumped for experience over youthful promise for his first driver line-up, with names such as Aston Martin reserve Felipe Drugovich having been a strong contender if Cadillac opted for a rookie, while Jak Crawford and Alex Dunne are also understood to have engaged in talks.

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