{"id":97154,"date":"2025-08-26T12:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T12:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/97154\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T12:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T12:54:07","slug":"cadillac-name-sergio-perez-and-valtteri-bottas-as-drivers-for-debut-f1-season-formula-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/97154\/","title":{"rendered":"Cadillac name Sergio P\u00e9rez and Valtteri Bottas as drivers for debut F1 season | Formula One"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sergio P\u00e9rez and Valtteri Bottas will be back on the Formula One<\/a> starting grid next season after Cadillac announced the signing of the veteran drivers as the team\u2019s debut pairing.<\/p>\n

The Mexican and Finn have multi-year deals, the General Motors-backed team said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

P\u00e9rez, a six-times race winner, and Bottas, who took 10 victories for Mercedes, are both 35 and have unfinished business after being dropped by the Red Bull and Sauber teams respectively in 2024.<\/p>\n

Cadillac\u2019s lineup was expected, although some younger prospects had been touted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe their experience, their leadership and their technical acumen are really what we need,\u201d the team CEO, Dan Towriss, said. \u201cIt\u2019s the right combination \u2013 the right drivers at the right time \u2013 and we\u2019re humbled by their belief in us in this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair spent years alongside two of the sport\u2019s greats, P\u00e9rez with four-time world champion Max Verstappen at Red Bull and Bottas as sidekick to seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.<\/p>\n

They also have more than 500 race starts between then \u2013 P\u00e9rez has 281 and Bottas 246 \u2013 and a combined 106 podium appearances.<\/p>\n

Towriss said P\u00e9rez in particular was keen to put \u201cin the rearview mirror\u201d his last season with Red Bull when he suffered a dramatic slump. \u201cWe had questions, we had scepticism \u2026 and he answered all of our questions, passed our tests with flying colours,\u201d Towriss added.<\/p>\n

Cadillac, who will use Ferrari power units until 2029 when General Motors hopes to have its own, face a steep learning curve as the 11th team at the start of a new engine era.<\/p>\n

P\u00e9rez and Bottas \u2013 the latter serving as Mercedes reserve this season \u2013 said they were excited to be starting afresh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a racing project; it\u2019s a long-term vision. It\u2019s not every day that you get a chance to be part of something being built from the ground up and helping shape it into something that truly belongs on the F1 grid,\u201d said Bottas. \u201cI\u2019ve had the honor of working with some of the best teams in the world, and I can already see the same professionalism and hunger here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cadillac will be the fifth team of P\u00e9rez\u2019s career, not including Racing Point which was a continuation of Force India under another name, and the Mexican looked forward to writing another chapter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud to be part of such an ambitious and meaningful project from the very beginning,\u201d he said. \u201cTogether I believe we can help shape this team into a real contender.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team principal, Graeme Lowdon, trumpeted a \u201cbold signal of intent\u201d for a US team that ultimately wants to have at least one American driver and be challenging for wins and championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve seen it all and they know what it takes to succeed in Formula One. But more importantly, they understand what it means to help build a team,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir leadership, feedback, race-hardened instincts and of course their speed will be invaluable as we bring this team to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Towriss and the General Motors president, Mark Reuss, recognised Mexico was a major market for the carmaker but said commercial considerations had not been a factor in driver selection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sergio P\u00e9rez and Valtteri Bottas will be back on the Formula One starting grid next season after Cadillac…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-97154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97154","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=97154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}