Why might Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas have chosen Cadillac over Alpine?

Thomas Maher
A mock-up of Cadillac's 2026 F1 driver line-up of Sergio Perez and Valltteri Bottas.

A mock-up of Cadillac's 2026 F1 driver line-up of Sergio Perez and Valltteri Bottas.

Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez are set to be announced as Cadillac F1 drivers for 2026, but speculation has linked both to Alpine recently.

Both F1 veterans are set to be confirmed as securing a return to the grid in 2026, joining Graeme Lowdon’s Cadillac team to form the new squad’s first driver line-up.

Why F1 veterans might have chosen Cadillac over Alpine

Having sat out the F1 2025 season, Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez will form a driver line-up of incredible experience and longevity once confirmed by Cadillac.

PlanetF1.com understands that announcements confirming both drivers are imminent, and will conclude months of speculation about the driver line-up chosen by the brand-new team as F1 swells to include an 11th team for the first time since 2016.

Bottas and Perez both lost their seats at the conclusion of F1 2024, with the Finn being overlooked in favour of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto at Sauber, while Perez was bought out of his Red Bull contract as the Milton Keynes-based squad plumped for change for this year.

However, both made it clear that they had not shut the door on F1 – Perez opting to have a quiet year and weigh up his options, while Bottas immediately set out his stall as wanting a return to the grid.

While the Finn kept a paddock presence by signing a deal to return to Mercedes – for whom he raced between 2017 and ’21 – as a reserve driver, Perez took on no such commitment as he took time out to enjoy life with family and friends, as well as maintaining his off-track business interests such as property investment. Alongside this was a change of management, with Perez going back to market with his efforts underpinned by Khalil Beschir.

With Lowdon having a large number of options to choose from for Cadillac in 2026, due to being “out of sync” with the driver market, the big headache for the former Virgin/Marussia CEO has been in figuring out whether or not to go with youthful promise or the wise experience drivers like Perez and Bottas represent.

Added to that has been speculation that Alpine has been eying up both drivers as potential options as a replacement for the struggling Franco Colapinto, with talks between Flavio Briatore and Bottas confirmed to have taken place.

“I met him today, and we talked about Valtteri,” Mercedes’ team boss Toto Wolff confirmed to Viaplay at the British Grand Prix about Briatore.

“It seems that the interest in Valtteri is increasing even further.

“He deserves this spot. If someone snatches him up as a racing driver, we’ll let him go. With a tear in our eyes, of course.”

While nothing quite so concrete has yet emerged about Perez, it’s understood the Mexican driver has had other options other than Cadillac on the table recently, and speculation has linked the 2023 championship runner-up with Colapinto’s seat.

The Argentine driver will continue in his seat alongside Pierre Gasly for the second half of the season, and is believed to be secure until the final races of the championship. If his form fails to pick up over the next six to seven Grand Prix weekends, there is a possibility of him being stood down to allow Alpine to weigh up its options for 2026, with the leading contender likely to be Estonian driver Paul Aron, although F2 star Alex Dunne has also been suggested as a possibility.

It seems to be just a matter of awaiting confirmation for these puzzle pieces to slot into position, and the big question to arise from this is that, if an Alpine seat was on the table, why have the experienced heads of Bottas and Perez opted against an apparent Enstone option?

The obvious place to start would be to assume that there is greater security in the Cadillac option. The formbook has shown that drivers without instinctual familiarity with the design ethos of individual cars in the ground-effect era struggle to adapt, even with full testing programmes.

A look at how proven quantities such as Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz struggling upon their team switches suggests that Perez and Bottas, sans recent race sharpness, could look less than stellar by jumping into a car mid-season, if such an option were a possibility.

Added to that is the fact that the A525 hasn’t been a particularly competitive car this year. Combine these factors and, even for drivers eager to return to the grid quickly, jumping into the Alpine mid-season in 2025 makes little sense.

But what about 2026? After all, Alpine swaps to Mercedes power, which paddock whispers suggests could be potent, and its chassis and aerodynamics designs have not been its major weakness – an Alpine seat in ’26, based on these factors and the team’s experience, should have it ahead of anything the Cadillac team might muster up in its first year.

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Here is perhaps where the wisdom and maturity of drivers who have been there, done that, may come into play. While Alpine’s competitiveness might mean greater rewards in the short term, it’s not likely that Bottas and Perez are seeking to impress front-running teams in quite the same way a rookie driver might be. Both have done long stints at the front and, now in their mid-30s and having already come to terms with possibly being out of F1 for good, a longer-term project might be exactly what’s desired.

Cadillac offers both the chance to work in a smaller team, an underdog environment in which both have thrived in the past. Combine that with the probability of both being offered contracts beyond a single year, and, suddenly, the prospect of joining what is a factory effort for a major manufacturer, even if it is running a customer Ferrari engine to start off, makes it very attractive.

Last week, PlanetF1.com revealed the extent of General Motors’ ramping up of its power unit project, which is set to kick in from 2029 as the American-British outfit becomes a full standalone manufacturer. It’s a big ask for Bottas or Perez to make it that far… but there is the chance.

In its simplest terms, Cadillac represents the chance to calmly return to the grid with little by way of expectation or pressure to start off, with those expectations only slowly ramping up as the team gains operational and technical experience to coincide with the drivers’ own sharpness returning, all with the prospect of relative calm on the driver front in the short-term.

Contract that against Alpine’s chopping and changing in recent years, with regular turnover of senior management; it’s over the next few weeks that new signing Steve Nielsen is expected to start work at Enstone as managing director, stepping into the void that was left when former team boss Oli Oakes suddenly resigned back in May.

The cessation of the power unit programme at Viry-Chatillion may not signal a team preparing for a sale and, indeed, new Renault CEO Francois Provost has underlined the French manufacturer’s commitment to remaining in F1 as the sport remains an integral part of its brand strategy.

But this position has only become clear in recent weeks, even if the message remains unchanged from what was maintained by his predecessor, Luca de Meo. For drivers such as Bottas and Perez, seeking something to commit to over the next few years, the possibility of further changes at Alpine could have been off-putting.

Add to that the uncertainty of the driver position. After all, Jack Doohan was a signed and sealed driver for F1 2025… until he wasn’t. Franco Colapinto’s signing of a five-year deal at Enstone immediately put the pressure on the Australian rookie, and, despite his best efforts, he couldn’t see off the threat.

Even Colapinto hasn’t been immune, with his initial position being that of a five-race evaluation. This evaluation has become something more indefinite for now, but the fact remains that he has little certainty over his future beyond the immediate.

Having seen the uncertainty under which any Alpine driver not named Pierre Gasly has raced for most of the last year, it’s perhaps unsurprising that, if Enstone was a realistic option for Bottas or Perez, they’ve chosen to commit to something which should, for now, offer them some more reassurance even if that means a less competitive car to start off.

Alpine hasn’t been left in too bad a position, either, however. With Gasly secure, the second half of the season should offer clarity on whether Colapinto is starting to find his feet after he put in a stronger weekend at the Hungaroring.

The chances of evaluating the likes of Aron, or perhaps Dunne, remain, while prominent free agents include which Red Bull driver doesn’t make the cut for next year – perhaps Yuki Tsunoda, perhaps Liam Lawson, perhaps Arvid Lindblad while, in the off-chance that Mercedes does somehow fail to re-sign George Russell or Kimi Antonelli, those would also represent attractive prospects.

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