{"id":4837,"date":"2025-07-18T06:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T06:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/4837\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T06:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T06:56:09","slug":"guenther-steiner-tells-cadillac-to-reject-sergio-perez-and-sign-five-dnf-f1-driver-to-partner-valtteri-bottas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/4837\/","title":{"rendered":"Guenther Steiner tells Cadillac to reject Sergio Perez and sign five-DNF F1 driver to partner Valtteri Bottas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cadillac are working to finalise their first driver line-up ahead of the General Motors team debuting in Formula 1 in 2026, with Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas in the mix.<\/p>\n

The American crew are yet to sign a driver to lead their arrival in the pinnacle of motorsport next term. But Cadillac<\/a> are engaged in talks with a flurry of drivers as team principal Graeme Lowdon<\/a> strives to sign at least one experienced name, but he is not opposed to a youngster.<\/p>\n

Bottas<\/a> and Perez<\/a> both slipping off the grid after the 2024 F1 season<\/a> pushed the veteran pair firmly onto Cadillac\u2019s radar for 2026. The Finn won 10 of his 246 Grand Prix starts between 2013 and 2024, while the Mexican won six races from his 281 starts between 2011 and \u201824.<\/p>\n

Progress has also been made in the General Motors brand\u2019s negotiations with the former. It is said that Bottas and Cadillac have now agreed on the terms of a contract<\/a>. The 35-year-old has not signed the deal, yet the framework is in place should the Finn accept Cadillac\u2019s offer.<\/p>\n

\"MercedesPhoto by Mark Sutton \u2013 Formula 1\/Formula 1 via Getty ImagesGuenther Steiner thinks Mick Schumacher has a \u2018good chance\u2019 to join Cadillac in 2026<\/p>\n

Bottas\u2019 position is not unlike the Mexican\u2019s as Perez and Cadillac agreed on the terms of his contract<\/a> earlier this year, as well. But the 35-year-old held off on putting pen to paper then as Perez was waiting to see if a chance would potentially emerge to join Mercedes in 2026.<\/p>\n

Perez and Bottas are also not the only names on the shortlist, and Guenther Steiner<\/a> believes Cadillac should consider offering Mick Schumacher<\/a> his return to Formula 1. The former Haas boss believes his old driver also has a \u2018good chance\u2019 to get one of the seats at the GM brand.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0All to know about General Motors\u2019 Cadillac F1 team from engine to drivers<\/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

Lowdon has confirmed that Cadillac are speaking with Schumacher<\/a>, who Steiner claims can \u2018help\u2019 thanks to what he learned as Mercedes\u2019 reserve driver across 2023 and 2024. He also has further experience of racing for a factory as the 26-year-old races for Alpine in the WEC.<\/p>\n

Steiner told sport.de<\/a>: \u201cI think Mick has a good chance. Cadillac need a driver with Formula 1 experience, and there aren\u2019t many drivers currently who don\u2019t have a job but have driven in Formula 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he was a test driver at Mercedes, he didn\u2019t race but he learned a lot about a good, large team. This knowledge of how a successful team works could help Cadillac.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guenther Steiner would sign Valtteri Bottas and Mick Schumacher if he were in charge of Cadillac\"AUTO-PRIX-F1-ESP-PRESSER\"Photo by MARK SUTTON\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Steiner considers Schumacher one of the \u2018four favourites\u2019 to join Cadillac along with Bottas, Perez and Zhou Guanyu. Yet if he were in Lowdon\u2019s shoes, Steiner would look to pair Bottas and Schumacher, given they both know how Mercedes work and the \u2018work ethic\u2019 required.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe and Mick both worked at Mercedes and learned the same work ethic,\u201d Steiner added.<\/p>\n

Schumacher drove for Haas under Steiner\u2019s watch during the 2021 and 2022 seasons after making his debut for the American-owned team. The German achieved a total of 12 points from 43 Grand Prix starts after his P8 in the 2022 British GP and P6 in the 2022 Austrian GP.<\/p>\n

But the son of the seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher also failed to finish five of his 43 starts from 44 entries. Mick registered three DNFs in his rookie season plus two as a sophomore, on top of failing to start the 2022 Saudi Arabian GP after crashing in qualifying.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cadillac are working to finalise their first driver line-up ahead of the General Motors team debuting in Formula…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,4228,48,578,576,1711,577,5577,931,5578,2191,82,1713],"class_list":{"0":"post-4837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-cadillac","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula-1-driver-market","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-general-motors","16":"tag-guenther-steiner","17":"tag-mick-schumacher","18":"tag-sergio-perez","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-valtteri-bottas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}