Bottas' Cadillac Future Questioned Amid Lean Run

Valtteri Bottas returned to Formula 1 this season alongside Sergio Perez, with Cadillac entrusting two experienced race winners to lead its debut campaign. However, the American newcomer reached the halfway point of 2026 without scoring a point, while Bottas also struggled to match Perez across the opening 11 rounds.

Speaking on The Red Flags Podcast during the summer break, former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner questioned whether Bottas remained as motivated as his teammate after giving the Finn a D grade for his season so far.

"Perez is just better than him at the moment," Steiner said. "What Perez tries to do, I think Valtteri has given up a little bit, it looks like." Perez has held the advantage over Bottas in both qualifying and races during Cadillac's introduction to F1. The team has also battled reliability problems and a general lack of competitiveness.

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Steiner believed those circumstances made it difficult to judge either driver entirely on results, but argued Perez had continued to put in the effort despite Cadillac's struggles. "He's doing better than his teammate," Steiner said of Perez. "It's a C, and he's putting an effort in, but if the car doesn't break, it is slow. What can he do about it? You judge them on the effort they put in because it is so easy to get frustrated that you're not doing anything anymore."

Steiner stopped short of arguing Cadillac needed to make a driver change, instead pointing to improving the car as the greater priority. "If they need to change one driver, obviously I think they're going to change Valtteri," Steiner said. "His results are not as good. I think Valtteri expected something different, but not this. Now it's like, 'Hell yeah, I'm driving a Formula 1 car, but I had a good job at Mercedes being the reserve driver. I was last as the reserve driver because I didn't participate, and now I need to make all this effort to be last'."

It is not the first time Bottas' place at Cadillac has been questioned this season. The 10-time grand prix winner dismissed speculation over his future in June after reports suggested his position could already be under scrutiny, with reserve driver Colton Herta among those linked with the seat. "It's not the first time I've faced those kind of rumours," Bottas said at the time. "It's a bit of a shame that somebody just makes up complete bullshit, but that's normal in this sport. I know my situation, the team knows my situation, and they support me 100 percent, so that's why from my side it was okay in the end."

Bottas remained publicly optimistic about Cadillac's prospects despite a difficult opening half of the year that included five retirements and a best result of 13th in China. Before the summer break, he insisted the team had already made progress with the speed and reliability of its car and set scoring points as a clear target for the remaining 12 races. "We want to get to Q2," he said. "That's the next step and then we want to get points."