Cadillac F1 development offers fresh hope for Bottas and Perez

Photo: © IMAGO

Cadillac

Cadillac F1 development offers fresh hope for Bottas and Perez

Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas will be back on the grid in 2026

By Sam Cook.

Tuesday 23 December 2025 01:00

Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez have received encouraging news ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 season following a key update from Cadillac regarding its entry into the championship.

The American manufacturer is set to join the grid as Formula 1’s 11th team in 2026 and has already strengthened its project by bringing in two drivers with extensive experience at the highest level of the sport.

Bottas, a 10-time race winner, boasts one of the strongest records of the modern era. Across the hybrid period from 2014 to 2025, he ranks third for total podium finishes, surpassed only by Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

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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.

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.

F1 Sergio Perez Cadillac Valtteri Bottas