Bottas: My experience will help Cadillac

Bottas has been watching F1 racing from the sidelines since the start of the 2025 season, but that has made him confident that he still has more to give in the sport.

Bottas did not renew his contract with Sauber at the end of the 2024 F1 season but found refuge at Mercedes, his former team, who welcomed him back as a reserve driver, which could also be seen as an insurance policy for Toto Wolff in case his latest signing, Kimi Antonelli, did not deliver.

Thus, Bottas has been a fixed figure in the Mercedes garage since the start of the 2025 F1 season, which is a good thing for him as it keeps him in touch with the sport and whatever is going on within it, especially as he insists he is not done yet and is looking to return to a full-time seat.

He said: "I’m sitting here now without a race seat, not because of my own choice. I definitely still feel—and that emotion was quite quick after I knew I wouldn’t get a seat for this year—that I’m not done yet with F1.

“I still have more to give. It’s still [the] number one thing in my life. That sensation, now that I’ve been watching aside, has got stronger and stronger and stronger, and now I really start to miss racing.

“I just feel like the way especially the last two years went for me in my career, it’s definitely not the way I want things to finish. End of last year—some Qualifying, some races—I felt like I was performing at my best ever.

"I haven’t felt any degradation in myself yet. That’s why I just want to keep going. We humans, we have deg, but I don’t have it yet," the Finn claimed.

One of the interesting prospects for Bottas is the incoming Cadillac F1 Team, who will join the grid in 2026 and are on the market for drivers.

Bottas, a ten-time Grand Prix winner with years of experience, should be a good option for Cadillac given his experience in the sport, which would be an added value to any team that is building from scratch.

Discussing his chances to land a Cadillac drive, Bottas said: “I don’t think they’re in a massive rush. They’ve been very, very busy on trying to get a car on the grid for next year.

"I know my timeline, when I want to know about next year and what plans do I need to make, which I think, August, more or less, is a pretty good target for that. But hopefully we’ll hear something more soon," he added.

Bottas is not the only driver on Cadillac's list, which also includes former Red Bull Racing driver Sergio Perez, whose stock has risen recently in light of his replacements' struggle to handle the Milton Keynes 2025 single-seater alongside Max Verstappen, which was the reason why the Mexican was shown the door at the end of 2024.

"I think they have a few drivers on the list," Bottas acknowledged. "I would imagine my experience will help because now I’ve raced in three different teams, with one of the teams [that] had mega success. With Williams as well, [we] had some great results, so I hope I’m in a good position.

"For me, I actually see a very interesting project, something new to F1, an American team with maybe a different view to the sport. If I would be there as a driver, it would be actually very interesting because you can start from scratch.

"The team starts from zero. You could actually make a big influence on certain things, which direction to go, and that would be very motivating and rewarding when the success comes.

"I think the rule change is always a good point to jump in because you just never know, if you suddenly get it right you might actually be doing really well from the get-go," Bottas concluded.

Bottas joined the F1 grid for the 2013 season with Williams and remained with them until joining Mercedes ahead of the 2017 season. He was replaced by George Russell at Mercedes for the 2022 season and went on to join Alfa Romeo, which became Sauber in 2024, his last season with the Swiss-based team. (Quotes from Beyond The Grid podcast)