Bottas and Perez handed Cadillac F1 boost ahead of returns

F1 stars Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez have been handed boosts for the upcoming 2026 season, as Cadillac have made an announcement.

Cadillac are joining the F1 grid in 2026 as the 11th team in the sport, and have managed to acquire the services of two very experienced F1 racers.

Bottas is a 10-time grand prix winner, and in the hybrid era between 2014-2025, he has the third most podiums in the sport, behind only Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

Perez, meanwhile, has claimed six grands prix wins, and most recently was the team-mate of Verstappen, helping Red Bull win back-to-back constructors' titles in 2022 and 2023.

Perez was axed by Red Bull at the end of the 2024 season, while Bottas was let go after not scoring a single point at Sauber in the same year.

After a year off the grid for both drivers, they are now set to be back, but despite their blockbuster driver lineup, team principal Graeme Lowdon has revealed that he expects Cadillac to be running at the back of the pack in 2026.

Now, the race engineers that Cadillac are set to give Perez and Bottas have been revealed, with the pair being given experienced F1 figures.

Former Aston Martin performance engineer Carlo Pasetti will act as Perez’s race engineer, while John Howard - who spent 15 years at Renault/Alpine and became Pierre Gasly's race engineer in recent years - is set to work alongside Bottas.

What is a race engineer's job?

A race engineer is the point of communication between the driver and the team during a session, whether that is guiding them through their strategy, helping them improve performance or coaching a driver to manage their car - or in Gianpiero Lambiase's case, calming down a foul-mouthed Verstappen.

Over the years, some race engineers have become household names, with the voice of Peter Bonnington now iconic for his motivational catchphrase towards Lewis Hamilton: "It's hammer time."

The relationship between driver and race engineer can be crucial to overall performance, as Hamilton found out in 2025 when he and Riccardo Adami's relationship didn't quite flourish straight away, causing some tense moments between the pair.

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