Valtteri Bottas interview: Inside my Cadillac F1 comeback | F1 | Sport

“For a short moment, there was a small thought that it was over,” said Valtteri Bottas. “I remember the last race, my dad was there in Abu Dhabi, and he was a bit emotional. But I very quickly said it out loud that I’m not done yet. And that’s what has happened in the end.”

Bottas had one fleeting moment of concern for his Formula 1 career when Sauber confirmed after months of torturous waiting that he would not stay beyond the end of the 2024 season. By the time the decision was announced in November that year to hire rookie Gabriel Bortoleto to partner the experienced Nico Hulkenberg, there was nowhere else for the Finn to go.

Every race seat for 2025 was filled, so Bottas accepted the offer from his old boss Toto Wolff to return to Mercedes as a reserve driver while team-mate Zhou Guanyu, also ousted by Sauber’s new owner Audi, took a similar role at Ferrari.

But after that initial worry, the 10-time Grand Prix winner says he always had a feeling it was not the last time we would see him on the F1 grid.

Indeed, he will be back in just a few weeks’ time at the Australian Grand Prix, the curtain-raiser for the 2026 season. Bottas has signed with Cadillac alongside fellow veteran Sergio Perez. He has also reunited with Zhou, who will act as a reserve for the pair of them.

The 36-year-old held talks with Williams and Alpine last year too, but decided early on that the Cadillac project was the most intriguing to him.

“It’s quite a rare opportunity in anyone’s career to be in a team that joins F1 as a new team,” he smiles over a coffee in the Mercedes hospitality suite, lining the paddock at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

He was still contracted to Mercedes at the time, having agreed to attend every race of 2025 in case they needed him to drive.

They didn’t, as it turned out – though being reserve to George Russell and Kimi Antonelli over the whole year has given Bottas a brand new skillset.

“I’ve now properly seen how the team actually operates in all areas,” he said. “I have much more capacity to just look around, instead of just looking at the data and driving the car.

“So it’s been interesting. I think I’ve learned a lot about how the team is actually being run. My scope is much wider, I would say 95% wider than what I used to have.

“I think that’s going to help me. It has made me a more complete driver as well, having that kind of knowledge.”

Wolff was quick to extend Bottas the reserve role offer so he could stay in the F1 paddock, and proved no barrier at all to the Finn’s desire to get back into a race seat.

Bottas explained that the Mercedes boss “was really supportive”, adding: “The whole team was really supportive. So it was definitely the best opportunity for me for this year to be here, and I’m glad I made that choice.”

What does Bottas make of this Mercedes team, which hasn’t won a title since he left, but is gearing up for a challenge this year?

“I think it’s in a great state,” he said. “They’ve made improvements from last year, and I think just overall, the team just didn’t get it quite right enough to be world champions with these regulations.

“But now the team is second in the standings, so it’s definitely improving. But overall, the feeling is great. There’s still lots of good people here.

“For 2026, I think there’s high hopes. A new set of regulations – normally, they’ve been pretty successful in that, both with the engine and the chassis.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for Mercedes. I think their power unit development, what the rumours say, has been going quite good.

“But again, we don’t see anything until the qualifying in Melbourne. But in theory, I think this team will have a great chance to fight for the title.”

The title will be a long way from Bottas’s mind at Cadillac. For F1’s newest team, the job of building an outfit from the ground up in time for the trip to Australia in a few weeks’ time has been enormous.

Many expect them, reasonably, to be the slowest team on the grid in 2026 as a result. Internally, there are no expectations at all.

Asked what we can expect from Cadillac, Bottas replied with a laugh: “To be on the grid in Melbourne! That’s step one.

“It’s so hard to put certain goals for results for the beginning of the year. It’s so hard to put it on paper because there’s so many variables with the new regs, and we need to be realistic.

“It’s not going to be about where we start, it’s where we get to and how quickly. We’re realistic, it’s going to be hard work initially.”

He added that the rate of development is the main thing. “We just need to have a reliable car for the first part and then go from there,” he said.