The deal started way before anyone noticed, the money is lower than you’d think, and there was an actual backup plan if Bottas said no
Ok so Bottas joins Cadillac F1 for 2026 alongside Perez, the 11th team on the grid, brand new, never raced in F1 before. Most of you already know this part. What most people don’t know is how the whole thing actually came together, because there’s a lot more behind it than just a press release from August last year.
Let’s go through it properly.
When did the talks even start?
Much earlier than you’d expect.
Bottas himself said it on the F1 Nation podcast. His first real conversation with Cadillac’s team principal Graeme Lowdon happened back in 2023. Not 2025. 2023. “For me, the priority was always about Cadillac. I had my first talks with Graham two years ago, so it’s a long time. And earlier this season, it became very clear to me that that’s what I want.”
So while everyone was speculating in the paddock about who Cadillac would sign, Bottas already had two years of conversations behind him. He wasn’t desperately looking for a seat in summer 2025, he was waiting for the right moment on something he already knew he wanted.
The negotiations got serious around British GP in July 2025. Cadillac brought a big group to Silverstone, including TWG boss Dan Towriss, and had meetings with driver representatives. By late July they decided internally they want experienced drivers, not young ones. From there things moved fast and the announcement dropped on August 26.
So Why Exactly Bottas Joins Cadillac F1 for 2026, What Was The Pull?
Simple, really. He wanted to build something, not just drive for someone.
Bottas spent whole 2025 as Mercedes reserve. Watching from garage, helping young Antonelli develop, doing simulator work. Useful, sure, but that’s not racing. He had options though, Alpine was genuinely interested and there were actual conversations happening.
But listen to how he talked about Cadillac vs Alpine: “There was some talks, of course, with other teams such as Alpine, but yeah, in my mind, I was quite set early on this year.”
Alpine wasn’t really competition in his head. Cadillac was the plan.
What Cadillac offered him was different. New team, completely new regulatory era with 2026 rules, multi year contract, and a chance to actually influence how a team develops from day one. He was at Mercedes during years when they dominated everything. He was at Sauber when everything was falling apart. Now he wanted to be there at the actual start of something.
Toto Wolff was supportive about it too, which mattered. “He deserves this spot. If someone snatches him up as a racing driver, we’ll let him go. With a tear in our eyes, of course,” Wolff said in Zandvoort.
How much money are we talking?
This is the part people argue about most online, and honestly the numbers depend heavily on which source you trust.
Most consistently cited figure is around $5 million base salary per season. That puts him somewhere in midfield when you rank all 22 drivers by pay in 2026. People from the paddock said his deal was “in the same range” as what he was getting at Mercedes toward end of his time there, which sounds like a lot until you remember he was earning over $10 million annually during peak Mercedes years.
So yes, it’s lower than you might expect for a 10 time Grand Prix winner. But he also spent entire 2025 without a race seat, which doesn’t exactly strengthen your negotiating position. That’s just the reality when Bottas joins Cadillac F1 for 2026 coming off a year as a reserve driver.
Contract runs for two years, until end of 2027. Bonuses and personal sponsorships can add to the base, but the base itself is quite modest for someone with his CV. Cadillac knew they weren’t offering top of market money, but they offered security and a multi year deal, which is what Bottas actually needed after the uncertainty of 2024 and 2025.
How did Cadillac actually approach him, who made the first call?
This is where Graeme Lowdon becomes the key figure.
Lowdon previously managed Zhou Guanyu, who was Bottas’ teammate at Sauber between 2022 and 2024. So Lowdon already knew exactly what Bottas was like, how he works technically, how he operates in a team environment. When Lowdon took the job of building Cadillac from scratch, he didn’t need to research Bottas from zero, he already had years of context.
That’s probably why the 2023 conversations happened at all. Lowdon was already building the project in background and Bottas was someone he knew well through the paddock.
Bottas also helped himself by staying visible. He was trackside throughout 2025 with Mercedes, not hiding somewhere outside of F1 waiting for a call. Being present made everything easier.
The team later described their search as “proper and thorough” but multiple sources made it pretty clear Bottas was their top choice from early on and the negotiations were never really in danger from other candidates coming in.
Alpine kept coming up, what actually happened there?
This is probably the most interesting part of whole story.
Alpine were genuinely interested in Bottas. There were actual conversations. But then after the Cadillac deal was signed, Flavio Briatore gave one of those quotes that sounds like he’s playing it down but actually tells you everything. He said: “There was never a discussion for Bottas to drive for Alpine.” Then immediately added: “I think Alpine helped Bottas a little bit to sign the contract with Cadillac. We did some marketing.”
Briatore basically admitted that Alpine’s interest, even if it wasn’t that serious from their side, gave Bottas something to use. Cadillac knew other teams wanted him. That changes how negotiations go.
Both Bottas and Perez actually had same concern about Alpine when they were weighing things up. Alpine couldn’t promise a quick decision because dropping Franco Colapinto was complicated, the Argentine brought sponsors with him and cutting that relationship wasn’t simple. So both drivers were looking at a situation where waiting for Alpine might mean losing Cadillac, with no guarantee they’d even get the Alpine seat in the end.
Cadillac said yes. Alpine said maybe. That’s not a hard decision.
And if Bottas actually said no, who would Cadillac have gone for?
Cadillac talked to quite a few people during their search. Zhou Guanyu was probably the most realistic alternative for Bottas’ seat specifically. He had Ferrari connection through his reserve role, Cadillac runs Ferrari engines, and he had that existing relationship with Lowdon. Zhou ended up joining anyway as reserve driver in January 2026, which tells you something about how seriously they considered him.
Felipe Drugovich was another name, 2022 F2 champion who was Aston Martin reserve. Paul Aron, Alpine junior, also came up in discussions.
Yuki Tsunoda’s name was mentioned internally as longer term possibility but his Red Bull situation was too uncertain at the time.
Daniel Ricciardo seemed obvious given how popular he is in USA and Cadillac is American project, but he had already privately told people he was done with racing. ESPN reported Cadillac never even formally contacted him to check if he’d change his mind.
But here’s the thing. Multiple sources who were close to the decisions told ESPN that Cadillac had pretty much set on Bottas and Perez from early stage. Everyone else was theoretical. The question was never really if Bottas would get the seat, it was just when the paperwork would be done.
