Valtteri Bottas isn't worried about his job security at Cadillac, at least for the foreseeable future.
At least for the foreseeable future, Valtteri Bottas isn't too concerned about his Cadillac seat.
Despite the recent leadership turnover at Cadillac, the seasoned driver eased concerns about his future with the team. Bottas said that he's already focused on helping the team in 2027, and that he'll discuss his future after next year.
So far, it has been a painful debut season for Bottas and his Cadillac teammate Sergio Perez. Through 12 races, they haven't scored a point yet. They just don't have the qualifying pace and long-run reliability to keep in touch with the midfield cars, much less fight for points.
But these growing pains are expected, and that's why Cadillac brought in seasoned drivers like Bottas and Perez. They need their valuable feedback each weekend, in an effort to build a strong foundation for their car in 2027 and beyond.
And yet, Bottas shouldn't be too complacent about his job security, even for next year.
Perez is outperforming Bottas
Before the summer break (11 races in total), Perez was 0.640% faster than Bottas in race pace in clean air. According to Delta Data's statistics, this clean air speed difference is the largest among all teammates in the grid.
For Bottas, that doesn't look good. He is also trailing his teammate, 8-3, in Grand Prix finishes. Bottas does have a slight 7-6 advantage in qualifying sessions, as he finished ahead of Perez by 0.229 seconds in the Dutch qualifying.
Who can replace Bottas in Cadillac?
Back in May, Sky Sport Italy mentioned that Bottas was not meeting the team's expectations for him early in the season. This led to rumors that Cadillac might already be looking at potential replacements for Bottas's seat.
Before officially signing with Cadillac for the 2026 season, Bottas and Perez had a serious competition with American driver Colton Herta. Since Cadillac is an American-owned brand, it only made sense back then that they bring in an American driver.
However, Herta has had a difficult showing in this year's Formula 2 championship. He's only 16th in the grid, having scored 26 points.
But Cadillac is not too worried about Herta's performance. Former team principal Graeme Lowdon said that they expected this from Herta's debut F2 campaign, and that he's ticking the right boxes despite the low points turnout.
It sounds like Cadillac is keen on promoting the former American IndyCar driver somewhere down the road.
