Cadillac F1 2027 driver latest as Herta and Bottas rumours swirl

Putting an American driver in the car is “important” to Cadillac F1, but so too is the timing of any such a decision.

That is according to team principal Marcin Budkowski, at a time where challengers are emerging to Valtteri Bottas, including Colton Herta, for an F1 2027 seat. With Sergio Perez’s services secured under a new multi-year deal, Budkowski suggested that the team is in “no rush” to decide his teammate for next season.

Cadillac F1 in ‘no rush’ on completing 2027 line-up

Ahead of Perez’s home race, it was announced that he had re-signed with Cadillac F1 for at least the next three seasons. Bottas’ status was not addressed.

Meanwhile, the team ran Herta in a fifth FP1 session of the season in Mexico. It was thought that this would bag him his FIA Super Licence, though amid some confusion, it has since emerged that he will require another 100km session to reach that landmark, as he contends for a Cadillac race seat.

All the while, Mercedes reserve Fred Vesti has openly stated his desire to land that F1 2027 drive with the American team. He turned heads in Mexico FP1, getting within a tenth of teammate for the session Kimi Antonelli, who is poised to secure the Drivers’ title this weekend.

As an American team which flies its home flag high, and is currently ramping up its operations in the United States, Budkowski was asked by Sky F1 how important it is for Cadillac to field an American driver.

“Look, it is important,” he confirmed. “It’s an American team. It races under an American flag. You’ve seen it in Austin, we’re building a strong American identity as well.

“It’s great to have an American driver. It increased the hype.

“But it’s also a question of timing. The right driver when the team is ready for it. And so we’re assessing this.

“But the objective here this season was to have Colton as part of the team. He’s doing some simulator development for us. He’s done five FP1s now.

“It’s one more than expected because in Monza, unfortunately, we had an issue on his car that prevented it to do any meaningful running in Monza. We might do more FP1s with him to give him more experience. I think it’s part of the process we’re in.”

Budkowski was quizzed on whether Herta is ready to step up to the F1 2027 grid as teammate to Perez.

The California native swapped IndyCar for Formula 2 as part of his quest to reach Formula 1, though has found the transition challenging in certain aspects. He sits 19th in the current championship standings.

“The reality is, Checo has been really strong this year, on track, off track. He’s pushing us very hard. He’s driving really well,” Budkowski continued.

“He’s pushing us very hard here at the track and at the factory, he’s giving a lot of feedback. He’s won races. He’s been part of winning organisations and is a force in the team. But he’s won his extension on the track. He’s been overall the quicker and the better driver this year.

“And there was an opportunity. What are the chances that he would complete his 300 races on our first season as the Cadillac F1 team here in Mexico. We did this mega show run. It was a great opportunity to announce this extension. I think it was just an opportunity because it was the right time, the right place.

“For the second seat and for our future driver strategy, we have no rush to either announce it or even potentially decide it.”

So, as Cadillac weighs up its options, Bottas received clear guidance on what he must do to also retain his drive.

“I think he’s done a really good race in Austin,” said his team boss. “He was strong in qualifying. He was strong in the race. That’s what he needs to do: race in, race out.”

Alas, while Bottas scored Cadillac’s best result in F1 to date, P13 in China, more recently he has struggled to consistently match the level of Perez.

No obvious explanation as to why currently exists for team and driver.

Asked what are the difficulties stopping Bottas, a 10-time grand prix winner, showing the pace expected of him, Budkowski replied: “It’s a very good question.

“It’s actually the question we’re asking ourselves collectively with Valtteri and with the engineering team, because some races, we don’t actually see a reason for it in the data.

“Valtteri doesn’t see a reason for it neither in terms of there’s no big issue in the car. But, he’s a racing driver, he’s an experienced racing driver. He knows what he can extract from a race car and what he can’t, and he just says, ‘I can’t extract more pace from this car.’

“But let’s face it, we’re a new team. We have this car. It’s not a perfect car. It’s a car that’s been put together in a very short period of time by a team of people who never worked together before and from a white sheet of paper.

“We have to accept that we’re not giving these guys the best possible equipment, and we don’t have, as a team, enough strength and depth to have full certainty that the equipment we have is perfect and is equal.

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