Cadillac has officially announced Formula 1 veterans Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez as the driver line-up for its F1 debut season in 2026.
Both have been off the grid this season after losing seats – Bottas replaced at Sauber by Gabriel Bortoleto and Perez dropped mid-contract by Red Bull in favour of Liam Lawson, who was then replaced by Yuki Tsunoda.
The pair of 35-year-olds boast 16 grand prix wins and 527 starts between them, and have both finished second in the world championship during their stints with top teams – Bottas in 2019 and 2020 while paired with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, Perez in 2023 alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull.
Bottas – who returned to Mercedes as its reserve this year – said Cadillac felt like “something different – something ambitious but also grounded” from the moment they began talks.
“It’s 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,” he added.
“I’ve had the honour of working with some of the best teams in the world, and I can already see the same professionalism and hunger here.”
Perez called the move “an incredibly exciting new chapter in my career” and believes he and Bottas “can help shape this team into a real contender, the team of the Americas”.
Speaking to selected media including The Race about the driver decision, Cadillac F1 CEO Dan Towriss said going for experience over youth in both cars was a very deliberate strategy at this formative stage in the team’s development.
“We believe their experience, their leadership and their technical acumen really are what we need,” he said.
“It’s the right combination, the right drivers at the right time. And we’re humbled by their belief in us, in this project and couldn’t be more excited to take this next step with them.
“There are a tonne of amazing drivers out there. There’s a pool of young drivers that are exciting, very talented and Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, as we all know, and so this was a tough decision to work through this.
“And ultimately, it was the experience and leadership of these two individuals that stood out among the rest.”
General Motors president Mark Reuss agreed that “feedback of drivers that are experienced into the vehicle development itself” would be vital for Cadillac at this point.
American drivers not in the mix
The question of American drivers has hovered around this team ever since the project’s initial roots as the Andretti F1 proposal, though this quietened somewhat with the transition to Cadillac.
Asked whether IndyCar frontrunners such as Andretti racer Colton Herta or double champion Josef Newgarden were ever considered, Towriss said the policy of focusing on experience meant they were never realistic contenders.
“In the case of Colton, the superlicence points aren’t there,” he said.
“But really what it comes back to is experience in Formula 1 carried the day. Despite the amount of experience that we have on the team, everybody’s new, everybody’s working together for the first time and so we think that the experience that these two drivers bring is really what’s most important.
“And so we certainly do think about it, and it’s important to us to make sure there’s a pathway for an American driver into Formula 1 and we’ll be working on that, but I think for this inaugural season, for what the team needs, really what these drivers bring was the right combination for our team.”
2026 F1 line-up so far
McLaren: Oscar Piastri/Lando Norris
Ferrari: Charles Leclerc/Lewis Hamilton
Red Bull: Max Verstappen/TBA
Mercedes: TBA/TBA
Aston Martin: Fernando Alonso/Lance Stroll
Alpine: Pierre Gasly/TBA
Haas: Esteban Ocon/Ollie Bearman
Racing Bulls: TBA/TBA
Williams: Alex Albon/Carlos Sainz
Audi: Nico Hulkenberg/Gabriel Bortoleto
Cadillac: Sergio Perez/Valtteri Bottas
