{"id":947349,"date":"2026-10-31T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947349\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T08:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T08:00:11","slug":"mercedes-reserve-confirms-cadillac-f1-interest-as-bottas-pressure-increases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947349\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes reserve confirms Cadillac F1 interest as Bottas pressure increases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fred Vesti has admitted that he has his \u201ceyes set\u201d on a Formula 1 race drive with Cadillac<\/a> in 2027 amid ongoing speculation over Valtteri Bottas<\/a>\u2019 position in the team.<\/p>\n

Cadillac announced earlier this week that Sergio Perez has signed a new contract with the squad through 2029, but it has yet to reveal who his teammate will be next season.<\/p>\n

Fred Vesti targeting coveted F1 drive with Cadillac<\/p>\n

Bottas has occupied the seat alongside the Mexican during Cadillac\u2019s debut campaign in the series, with the incumbent pair both reported to have penned multi-term deals.<\/p>\n

However, Bottas\u2019 struggles since his return to F1, particularly in race trim relative to Perez, have prompted rumours to emerge that he could be replaced at the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

The 10-time F1 race winner brushed aside the growing noise surrounding his drive last weekend in Austin<\/a>, though he later admitted that there are no guarantees in the sport.<\/p>\n

Colton Herta, who has appeared in five F1 practice sessions with Cadillac to date, has been linked as a possible successor to Bottas should the team elect to make a change.<\/p>\n

Vesti, though, is also understood to be under consideration<\/a>. Like Herta, the Dane has an existing connection to Cadillac, dovetailing a race drive with the American marque\u2019s sports car entrant in IMSA alongside his reserve driver duties with Mercedes in F1.<\/p>\n

Following an outing with the Silver Arrows in FP1 in Mexico, where he placed third overall on the timesheets, less than a tenth behind points leader and champion-elect Kimi Antonelli, Vesti revealed that he is targeting a coveted seat in F1 with Cadillac.<\/p>\n

More reaction to the Mexican GP on PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hugely privileged to be working with two awesome manufacturers, Mercedes and Cadillac,\u201d Vesti began to Sky Sports F1.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, racing with them in sports cars, they\u2019ve had the chance for two years to see what I can do. This year, we were Drivers\u2019 Champion, Team Champions, Manufacturers\u2019 Champion in IMSA, and I think that that really shows the level we\u2019re operating at.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to have two manufacturers working together like that for a driver is very, very special and very rare.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there\u2019s no doubt, I have all my eyes on that seat, and it would be such a privilege to step into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vesti has pointed to Antonelli\u2019s exploits in his sophomore season as evidence that team bosses should be more willing to incorporate a rookie into their driver line-ups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is one thing I would say: look at Kimi. He has a chance of being World Champion this weekend,\u201d he highlighted.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s 20 years old; he\u2019s a young guy showing F1 what the young drivers can do. And I think that should be also a pointer for the team principals to trust the young talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is plenty of experience on the grid. I think we need to trust the rookies more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vesti is highly rated within Mercedes\u2019 ranks.<\/p>\n

Whilst a rookie in an F1 racing sense, he has amassed vast experience on the Brackley-based squad\u2019s simulator and has played an integral part in developing and refining this season\u2019s class-leading machine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, obviously new regs, [the] W17 [has] been performing really well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Formula 1, we\u2019re always pushing the boundaries, and I\u2019ve been right at the forefront of that, been the link between the racetrack and sort of development back in Brackley.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done a lot this year, and I want to say we\u2019ve done never-before-seen F1 things, which is very, very cool. And, privileged to be a part of that as well\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more: Haas reveals reason behind Oliver Bearman 2027 announcement delay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fred Vesti has admitted that he has his \u201ceyes set\u201d on a Formula 1 race drive with Cadillac…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,3550,817,813,816,514913,444705,818,139791,44,85,1512],"class_list":["post-947349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cadillac","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-fred-vesti","tag-frederik-vesti","tag-home-page","tag-mexican-grand-prix","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-valtteri-bottas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947349","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=947349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}