Brutal judgement on Mick Schumacher's wishful thinking of landing Cadillac seat

1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has dismissed Mick Schumacher as a possible option for Cadillac in 2026.

Schumacher is one of several drivers to be in talks with Cadillac over a race drive for next year.

Cadillac will join F1 in 2026 as the 11th team, but they have yet to decide on their driver line-up.

Schumacher has been off the F1 grid since the end of 2022, after losing his Haas drive to Nico Hulkenberg.

The German has since been Mercedes’ test and reserve driver.

He’s now racing for Alpine in the World Endurance Championship.

Last month, Schumacher confirmed that “discussions are ongoing” and talks have been “very positive so far”.

“Yes, of course, discussions are ongoing,” Schumacher said as quoted by the Brazilian edition of Motorsport.com.

“The communication has been very positive so far. And they’ve already hired a fantastic number of people for it. It’s an honour to be part of it, to negotiate with them, and a great position to be in.”

“No reason” to go for Schumacher

In recent weeks, Cadillac have been heavily linked with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.

Bottas is Mercedes’ third driver in 2025 and has remained active in F1 by testing for the team this year.

Speaking to Vision4Sport, Villeneuve rejected Schumacher as a potential Cadillac option.

“Mick Schumacher had a hard time when he was at Haas. He’s not an experienced driver either. There’s no reason to go for him,” he said.

Bottas is reportedly Cadillac’s number one choice for next year.

The Finn failed to land a drive at Sauber, missing out on the seat to Gabriel Bortoleto.

Bottas was still performing at a high level during his final season with the team.

While Bottas failed to score a single point last season, he had a comfortable margin over teammate Zhou Guanyu.

Bottas also qualified inside the top 10 in his final race for the team.

Villeneuve acknowledged Bottas’ strengths as a driver but questioned his “hunger” at Sauber.

“Bottas has a lot of experience and he’s shown that he can win races,” he added.

“And he’s been with an amazing team in Mercedes. So that’s good attributes to have. It’s hard to judge his Sauber years. I don’t think there was any hunger there.”