Cadillac’s drivers for the 2026 Formula 1 season are a pair of familiar faces.
The team announced Tuesday morning that Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez would return to F1 as Cadillac makes its series debut. Neither veteran has a ride in 2025, though Bottas is currently serving as Mercedes’ reserve driver.
The announcement isn’t much of a surprise. Both Bottas and Perez have been heavily mentioned as possibilities to drive for Cadillac and the team didn’t seem too keen on hiring an inexperienced driver for its first season.
Bottas and Perez will also give Cadillac one of the most accomplished driver duos on the grid, even if the team may not be all that competitive next season. Bottas has 10 F1 wins and Perez has six. Perez scored four of those six wins over the 2022 and 2023 seasons as Red Bull dominated F1.
Perez, 35, finished second in the F1 standings two years ago before he parted ways with Red Bull at the end of the 2024 season. The struggles of Red Bull to find a No. 2 driver to hang with Max Verstappen in 2025 have made it clear that Perez’s issues in 2024 were a much bigger problem than the driver.
Bottas, 36 in two days, last drove for Sauber in 2024. He spent three seasons with the team after he was replaced at Mercedes by George Russell following the 2021 season. Bottas finished in the top five in the points standings for five straight seasons from 2017 through 2021 and was second to Lewis Hamilton in both 2019 and 2020.
F1 is overhauling its car rules for the 2026 season and those new regulations are leading to an influx of new automakers joining the series as Cadillac is set to be the 11th team on the grid. Ford will be the engine supplier for Red Bull Racing, Audi is joining forces with Sauber and Honda is officially rejoining F1 as it will provide the engines for Aston Martin.
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