Former Red Bull driver Perez has reached an agreement that will see him return to the grid driving for Caddy, with an announcement expected in early September during the Italian Grand Prix weekend. The focus now turns to his team-mate.? Several former F1 drivers are said to be in the running, including Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu and Mick Schumacher.
Merc seem to have been bigging Bottas up recently, I wonder if that is to help get him a drive with Caddy?
Good point about Bottas,infact I`d like to see him back on the grid.He`s too good to be just standing in the garage with headphones on every race weekend. Just on the same topic of reserve drivers what happened to Mick Schumacher.?
Just Googled this little gem :--Valtteri Bottas's management team includes Toto Wolff, Didier Cotton, and Mika Häkkinen. While he works with these managers, Bottas has also stated he is taking a more active role in managing his own career. In the past, Wolff was not Bottas's manager while he was at Mercedes, but he has rejoined the management team since Bottas moved to Alfa Romeo. Mika Hakkinen, a two-time F1 champion, has also been a long-term manager for Bottas.
From the hints that have been dropped , I expected to see Valtteri confirmed by now . So I’m fully expecting them to sign both Perez and Bottas . Now I’m bound to be wrong !
Do you have insider info, or have you seen it somewhere credible? I’m not saying it won’t be Perez (he’s the obvious choice), but I’ve not seen more than a fresh round of rumours? As for the rest of the list, it’s pretty uninspiring line-up. Mick has been racing reasonably successfully WEC with Alpine and it seems that he’s a likely third/development driver for Cadillac as it could also offer him a more competitive sports car drive. After 3 years out of F1 I can’t see him making a racing return now. Personally I’d like to see Zhou get a go, there’s a Chinese marketing benefit & maybe some untapped potential that I’m interested to see if time as a Ferrari reserve might have unlocked. Bottas/Perez would be relatively dull for me, they’re both at similar stages of their career. I get they both have good experience of a top team, but for Cadillac - given their differing backgrounds - I think there’s a real risk they contradict each other. I suspect it’s a better way to make progress to pick one and have a clear path to follow - in the initial years either path will be “upward”.
I'm not sure an American team would want a Chinese driver with the current trade situation! OK so by 2026 season start it will probably all be water under the bridge but not sure an Americans teams first driver pairing being a Chinese and a Mexican driver will sit with their potential fans. I would quite like to see any combination of Perez and Zhou and Bottas. I do think they need experience for at least a couple of years to help them gel as a team.
