Bottas<\/a> and Perez<\/a> have long been considered two of the favourites to join Cadillac, given the veteran pair can offer years of experience and are on the F1 driver market<\/a>. Yet Cadillac have toyed with the idea of signing them both or just one to partner with a rookie who can grow.<\/p>\n Perez is itching to return to F1 having quickly become bored<\/a> on the sidelines since Red Bull terminated his contract last December. Bottas decided to return to Mercedes<\/a> as a reserve driver for the 2025 F1 season<\/a> to stay in the paddock whilst chasing a seat on the 2026 grid.<\/p>\n It has been reported that Cadillac may soon announce the signing of Perez<\/a> as Lowdon looks to put the final touches into place. But it has also been said that Bottas and Cadillac agreed on the terms of his contract<\/a> at Silverstone after they staged talks at July\u2019s British Grand Prix.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Valtteri Bottas\u2019 life outside F1 from girlfriend to wine and gin<\/a><\/p>\n TEAMDRIVER 1DRIVER 2AlpinePierre GaslyN\/AAston MartinFernando AlonsoLance StrollAudiGabriel BortoletoNico HulkenbergCadillacN\/AN\/AFerrariCharles LeclercLewis HamiltonHaasEsteban OconOliver BearmanMcLarenLando NorrisOscar PiastriMercedesN\/AN\/ARacing BullsN\/AN\/ARed Bull RacingMax VerstappenN\/AWilliamsAlex AlbonCarlos Sainz2026 confirmed F1 drivers<\/p>\n Reports even claim Cadillac want Bottas to partner a rookie like Felipe Drugovich<\/a>, instead of signing two veteran names. It is thought that Cadillac would like Bottas to serve as a mentor for a young driver whom they can build to be their team leader once the 35-year-old retires.<\/p>\n Should that be the case, then Cadillac must pay attention to the praise that Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff<\/a> has laid at Bottas\u2019 feet for the Finn\u2019s work as a mentor for Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a> this year. Bottas has taken the 18-year-old under his wing during his rookie term.<\/p>\n Wolff told Sky Sports<\/a> F1 (25\/07, 12:48): \u201cMy opinion is he deserves a drive. I think we have the best third and reserve driver you can imagine. If one of our guys eats a bad fish, I know Valtteri is going to be on the pace.<\/p>\n \u201cHis mentoring of Kimi is really astonishing. How Kimi takes this on board and Valtteri does it in the right way, you can see him upstairs looking at the overlays and giving Kimi driving line tips based on the onboards from the other drivers.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, [Mercedes would be] losing the best third and reserve [driver]. But he merits to have a full-time drive, and I\u2019m happy with him if he were to achieve that.\u201d<\/p>\n Valtteri Bottas\u2019 help has seen Andrea Kimi Antonelli break Formula 1 records as a rookie Cadillac could face competition as Bottas has an offer from Alpine<\/a>, who are still open to the idea of the 10-time Grand Prix winner potentially replacing Franco Colapinto this term. But Bottas is more interested in signing for Cadillac than for Alpine<\/a>, should that drive open up.<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0All to know about General Motors\u2019 Cadillac F1 team from engine to drivers<\/a><\/p>\n TEAMENGINERed BullRed Bull Powertrains (in partnership with Ford)FerrariFerrariMcLarenMercedesMercedesMercedesAston MartinHondaRacing BullsRed Bull Powertrains (in partnership with Ford)HaasFerrariWilliamsMercedesAlpineMercedesAudiAudiCadillacFerrariF1 engine suppliers for the 2026 season<\/p>\n The 20-time polesitter does not want to spend another term as a reserve driver next season after losing his seat on the grid after 2024. Audi elected against renewing Bottas\u2019 contract at Sauber to stay in the 2025 season and put rookie Gabriel Bortoleto next to Nico Hulkenberg.<\/p>\n Mercedes have since relished Bottas\u2019 return to Brackley, having raced for them from 2017 to 2021. Bottas helped Antonelli turn his Japanese Grand Prix weekend around<\/a> after the Italian admitted he was \u2018lost\u2019 after practice and lacked confidence going into qualifying at Suzuka.<\/p>\n Bottas\u2019 help saw Antonelli break Max Verstappen\u2019s record as F1\u2019s youngest Grand Prix leader in Japan<\/a>, where he also became the youngest driver with the fastest lap in a Formula 1 race. Mercedes rookie Antonelli became the youngest-ever F1 polesitter in the Miami Sprint<\/a>, too.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cadillac finally seem to be close to deciding who will make the General Motors brand\u2019s maiden F1 line-up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[12295,64,63,3550,1627,945,806,805,803,804,85,1512],"class_list":["post-22559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cadillac","tag-formula-1-driver-market","tag-mercedes","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports","tag-valtteri-bottas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Mercedes](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2209528377-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Mark Sutton \u2013 Formula 1\/Formula 1 via Getty ImagesCadillac must pay attention to Toto Wolff\u2019s praise for Valtteri Bottas mentoring Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/p>\n![\"Valtteri](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2200452907-1024x676.jpg\")
Photo by Sam Bloxham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n