The axed F1 star who will be ‘doing a dance’ after Cadillac entry confirmed
08 Mar 2025 6:30 PM

Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas vacated their F1 seats in 2024
Valtteri Bottas will be “doing a dance” over a potential Formula 1 comeback after the new Cadillac F1 team’s entry was officially approved for F1 2026.
That is the claim of Sky F1 reporter Ted Kravitz, who believes the Mercedes reserve driver will be “one of the candidates” to race for the new American team next season.
Valtteri Bottas to return with Cadillac F1?
The Cadillac F1 team, formerly known as Andretti, finally saw their application to enter F1 approved on Friday after a long-running battle to secure a place in the pit lane.
The General Motors brand will become the first new team to arrive on the grid since fellow US outfit Haas in 2016, becoming F1’s 11th team in the process.
Cadillac F1, led by the former Marussia chief executive Graeme Lowdon, will compete with customer Ferrari engines and gearboxes to begin with having committed to producing their own power unit from the 2028 season.
Cadillac F1 team approved for F1 2026 season
👉 Four reasons why GM’s huge F1 arrival makes so much sense
👉 Cadillac F1: Five drivers we’d love to see join the new American team
With less than a year to go before the team contest their first F1 race, attention will soon turn to Cadillac’s driver lineup.
It is understood that the team are seeking to pair a prominent American driver, such as the IndyCar star Colton Herta, with an established F1 driver for 2026.
Bottas lost his place on the F1 grid at the end of 2024 after being released by Audi F1, who will take over the existing Sauber team in 2026.
As revealed by PlanetF1.com, Bottas had signed a contract to stay at Sauber for 2025 before the team opted to sign newly crowned F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto instead.
The Finn has since returned to Mercedes, with whom he claimed 10 race victories in a five-year spell between 2017 and 2021, as the team’s reserve driver.
Kravitz believes Bottas will be excited by the impending arrival of Cadillac with the F1 newcomers representing an opportunity for the 35-year-old to return to a race seat in 2026.
Appearing on Sky F1, Kravitz said: “Valtteri Bottas will be doing a dance.
“If we think Cadillac are going to have one American driver and one seasoned campaigner in F1, Bottas is available.
“Mercedes would let him go for next year. He’d be one of the candidates.”
Bottas is likely to face stiff competition for a Cadillac F1 seat with his former Sauber team-mate Zhou Guanyu likely to emerge as a rival.
Zhou has made no secret of his desire to return to a permanent seat in 2026, with the Chinese driver joining Ferrari as the team’s reserve driver for this season.
As reported by PlanetF1.com last month, Cadillac’s links to Ferrari are likely to enhance Zhou’s hopes of a comeback with the 25-year-old known to be close to Lowdon, who has served on Zhou’s management team in the past.
Zhou is also known to bring significant financial backing, with reports last summer claiming the Chinese driver and his sponsors had failed with an offer in excess of €30million for a Haas seat for F1 2025.
Zhou laughed off the reports at the time, claiming that the scale of his financial support had been wildly exaggerated.
Sergio Perez, the former Red Bull driver, could also emerge as a contender to join Cadillac F1.
Rumours in Spain last month claimed that Perez could make a return to racing in the GT class at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours with a view to pursuing an F1 comeback with Cadillac in 2026.
Perez vacated his Red Bull seat at the end of last season after a punishing 2024 campaign, which saw him fail to register a podium after the fifth race of the season as the reigning champions slipped to a distant third in the Constructors’ standings.
The 35-year-old also brings considerable sponsorship having been supported by Carlos Slim’s Escuderia Telmex firm throughout his F1 career.
Read next: Jos Verstappen steps in to address ‘nonsense’ Max rumour in Dutch press
Leave feedback about this