Bottas to join Cadillac's new F1 team for 2026 season with Perez

Valtteri Bottas said joining Cadillac's new Formula 1 team for the 2026 season will be the biggest challenge of his career as he prepares to return to the grid full time alongside Sergio Perez. The 36 year old Finn, who spent 2025 as Mercedes reserve driver, made the remarks after a public demonstration run for Mercedes at the AMG Speedway in Yongin, South Korea, where he also previewed work already under way with Cadillac ahead of next year's major regulation reset.

Cadillac is entering F1 with ambitions to compete for wins but team and driver officials acknowledge a difficult debut season is likely as new chassis and power unit rules overhaul the field. Bottas said realistic short‑term goals include securing reliability, accumulating mileage and scoring some points, adding that "if we can score some points in the first year, I think that would be already a really good start for a new team. And try not to be last."

He described the move as an opportunity to influence team structure and engineering processes from the outset, drawing on his experience at Mercedes. "I think I can take a lot when it comes to simple things like the structure of the engineering meetings, the...