Bottas to Cadillac: What happens to his deal with Mercedes?

12:50, 20 Aug

byLudo van Denderen

With Valtteri Bottas soon to be officially announced by Cadillac, the question arises: will the Finn continue as Mercedes' third driver or will he already focus on the 2026 season with the American team? GPblog can exclusively provide the answer to this question.

After all the hints Bottas has been dropping over the past few months and the news brought by GPblog during the Belgian Grand Prix, it's no longer a big surprise: once the signatures are set, the announcement of the collaboration between the Finn and Cadillac will follow. That might happen in Zandvoort already.

At the moment, Bottas is Mercedes' third driver, meaning that he is (almost) always present as a reserve at every Grand Prix. Also, he works in the team's simulator and the former vice-champion has already completed a few Tests of Previous Cars (TPC). But can he continue to do so, if Bottas is contracted to Cadillac for next season - a team that will be powered by a Ferrari power uni?

The answer to that question is 'yes'. For the rest of the season, Bottas will remain connected to Mercedes as the third driver, just as planned, GPblog can confirm.

Valtteri Bottas will remain with Mercedes for the rest of the season

No earlier start for Bottas at Cadillac?

This makes it difficult - if not impossible - for Cadillac to use Bottas in their simulator, for example, working on the development of the car for 2026. The Americans also reportedly plan to conduct tests with modified Ferrari F1 cars (according to the TPC principle), but that also seems impossible.

Perhaps the future second driver can do all of this. If his name is Sergio Perez, this is much simpler, since the Mexican is currently not contracted to any F1 team.