Toto Wolff has given Valtteri Bottas a full-throated endorsement as the Finn prepares to return to the grid with Cadillac next season, calling the 10‑time grand prix winner “a driver with plenty still in the tank.”
Bottas, announced alongside Sergio Perez in the American marque’s inaugural Formula 1 line-up, will end his year on the sidelines by heading into 2026 with the new 11th team. He’s spent 2025 back at Mercedes in a reserve role, splitting time between simulator duty, trackside support and a quiet but meaningful mentorship of the team’s teenage rookie, Kimi Antonelli.
“It’s great to see Valtteri regain his place on the F1 grid,” Wolff said, praising both the timing and the fit. “He still has so much to offer as a racing driver and deserves to be on the Melbourne grid when the 2026 season begins.” The Mercedes CEO added that the team will miss him: “He’s played an important role for us this year and his contribution as third driver has been exemplary.”
Cadillac team boss Graeme Lowdon also tipped his cap to Mercedes for how the move was handled, a nod to a rare moment of clean cooperation in a driver market that’s usually anything but. The pairing with Perez gives the newcomers a heavyweight core of experience as they tackle a rules reset and the steepest learning curve in the sport.
For Bottas, the switch isn’t a clean break just yet. He’ll remain tied to his Mercedes commitments through the end of the current season, which he admits will compress how much he can do with Cadillac in the short term. “The work starts now,” he said. “I’m still contracted to Mercedes and will be at every race weekend as reserve, so that limits the calendar days I have available. But I’ll be involved when it comes to the key decisions that need to be made before the first test.”
There’s a touch of symmetry to it all. Bottas returns to a full-time seat five years after leaving the Mercedes garage as Lewis Hamilton’s wingman, and does so as the anchor of a brand-new project that will need calm heads and clear feedback. That’s Bottas territory. The Finn has always been a quiet specialist at the unglamorous parts of F1: building a baseline, grinding away at development, turning chaos into data.
Mercedes, for their part, get what they came for in 2025: a steady pair of hands helping steer a rookie season and a car programme. Cadillac, for 2026, get something just as precious — a driver who knows exactly how a top team operates and how to translate that into day-one direction.
Not a bad trade for anyone.
