EXCLUSIVE: Valtteri Bottas braced for ‘biggest challenge’ of his F1 career

Valtteri Bottas says joining the new Cadillac team will represent the “biggest challenge” of his F1 career.

Bottas, who won 10 races and claimed 20 pole positions for Mercedes when he drove as Lewis Hamilton’s teammate from 2017-2021, will return to the F1 grid on a full-time basis in 2026 with the new Cadillac team.

The 36-year-old Finn has spent this season on the sidelines as Mercedes’ reserve driver. He made his F1 debut with Williams in 2013 before joining Mercedes and having a three-season stint with Sauber between 2022-2024.

Speaking exclusively to Crash.net, Bottas acknowledged that joining a brand new team, at the start of one of the biggest regulation overhauls in F1 history, will be his biggest test yet.

“It probably is the biggest challenge of my career,” he said. “There’s a lot of work, but once eventually we get to the targets, it can be really, really rewarding. So that's what I'm looking forward to.

“As a driver, being now in this team, this role, when I feel like I can actually make a big difference on certain things and the direction things are going to go to in the future, that's really interesting.

“It’s going to be fun, but it's going to be hard work.”

Asked what he can take from working with an elite team like Mercedes to Cadillac, Bottas replied: “I think I can take a lot.

“I think I can take a lot of when it comes to simple things like the structure of the engineering meetings, the pre-event meetings, the debriefs.

“Whatever happens with radio comms between different people and different departments of the factory and all these things, I can definitely give my input. So that's good.”

What is the target for 2026?

Cadillac are entering F1 with the ambition to win, but the American outfit are prepared for a hugely challenging debut campaign in 2026.

And with F1 about to enter a brand new era of regulations, making bold predictions is extremely difficult.

Bottas hopes Cadillac can “score some points” in year one and avoid being last in the constructors’ championship.

“It's difficult to predict,” he admitted. “Again, with the rule changes, with the PUs, with the chassis, for everyone, there's many new things.

“We need to be realistic, it is a new team. There's a lot to learn. I think the main thing first is to keep finishing the races. We've got to get the reliability right. We've got to get the car running, get lots of kilometres, have some kind of a starting point.

"But then the direction needs to be clear that we've got to improve. I would say if we can score some points in the first year, I think that would be already a really good start for a new team. And try not to be last, I think that's probably a good starting point.”

Since losing his Sauber seat at the end of 2024, Bottas has repeatedly stressed that he has unfinished business in F1.

But what would a successful return ultimately look like?

“I just want to be part of a team that can really make progress,” he explained. “We can show to ourselves and to the world that this team is serious and we want to make progress and get better and better.

“The starting point is probably going to be tricky and challenging. But where we go from there, if we can get to a decent performance a few years ahead - that would be a success, I would say.

“And yeah, let's see what the starting point is and then we go from there.”