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Pressure mounting on Valtteri Bottas at Cadillac F1
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- Pressure mounting on Valtteri Bottas at Cadillac F1
(Photo by Jayce Illman/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Pressure is mounting on veteran driver Valtteri Bottas to keep his seat at Cadillac for the 2027 Formula 1 season.
When the sport's newest team launched ahead of the 2026 campaign, Bottas and fellow veteran Sergio Pérez were inked as the team's first drivers, in an effort to provide experience as Cadillac developed its car during the team's inaugural season. Both drivers were signed to "multi-year" deals, but team principal Marcin Budkowski caused a bit of a stir last week at the United States Grand Prix when he declined to tell the media, including SB Nation, that the same drivers would be back next season.
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Since then, however, the team confirmed a new contract with Pérez that will keep him with Cadillac through "at least 2029," according to the announcement.
As for Bottas, however, the pressure to keep his spot continues to mount, and developments on Friday ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix have only added to that pressure.
First is the fact that reserve driver Colton Herta, long rumored to be in line for a seat with Cadillac in the future, completed enough laps during FP1 to secure the final point he needed to obtain an FIA Super License. That puts Herta one step closer to a spot on the F1 grid.
Then are some comments from Budkowski , made to Sky Sports F1, shortly after the end of the session.
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"Valtteri did a really good race in Austin: he was strong in qualifying and he was strong in the race as well, and that's what he needs to do, race in, race out. We've seen weekends where he was on it, on pace with Checo [Pérez] and sometimes even a bit quicker. We need more of that," began the Cadillac boss.
"It is important, it is an American team. [Herta] races under the American flag and, you saw it in Austin, we're building a strong American identity as well. It would be great to have an American driver, in increases the hype. But it's also about the timing, the driver, whether the team is ready for it. We'll be assessing that.
"But the objective this season was to have Colton as part of the team, doing some simulator development for us. He's done five FP1s for us now, one more than expected because in Monza he unfortunately had an issue on his car which prevented him from doing any meaningful running. We might do more FP1s with him to give him more experience, it's part of the process really."
Then there is the fact that Bottas will be starting at the back of the grid when the lights go out in Mexico City on Sunday. Cadillac has replaced several components on Bottas' MAC-26, including the fifth Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) of the season, the fifth Turbocharger (TC), the fourth Energy Store (ES), the fourth Control Electronics Unit (PU-CE), and the fourth MGU-K of the season.
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As all of those are above the allowed number per season, Bottas has been assessed a drop of 50 spots for the Mexico City Grand Prix:
While it would make sense to keep both Pérez and Bottas in the seats together for next year, as the main focus on Cadillac has to be improving the car for 2027, something Budkowski admitted on Friday in Mexico City.
"But let's face it, we're a new team, this car is not a perfect car. The car has been put together in a very short period of time by a team of people who have never worked together before and from a white sheet of paper," said the Cadillac boss.
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"We have to accept that we're not giving these guys the best possible equipment and we don't have as a team enough strength and depth to have full certainty that the equipment we have is perfect. So we're looking at it together, from the team's side and from the driver's side and that's why also we're taking the time to try to understand exactly what's going on."
Still, the growing chatter around the seat continues. And the chatter makes it seem like the odds are increasing that Herta will be in that seat at some point soon.
Whether that is at the start of 2027, or sometime during the season, remains to be seen.
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