Cadillac emphatically shuts down wild Valtteri Bottas F1 axe rumours

Cadillac Formula 1 team principal Graeme Lowdon has rubbished rumours that Valtteri Bottas could be sacked.

Speculation began to swirl on social media after the Canadian Grand Prix that Bottas’s position at Cadillac was under threat and that he could lose his seat, potentially as early as the next round in Monaco.

It was claimed that Cadillac is unhappy with Bottas’s performances so far this season and wanted to replace him with American Formula 2 driver Colton Herta. However, Herta does not currently have the required points needed to obtain a superlicence.

Cadillac has now addressed the speculation head on, with team boss Lowdon shutting down any suggestion that Bottas could leave.

“There is no foundation of truth in any of the rumours at all,” Lowdon is quoted as saying by PlanetF1.

“I can categorically say that. Just… where do I start on the rumours themselves? I’ll make it really, really clear factually, they’re completely incorrect. There’s no basis of truth whatsoever in any of them.

“Secondly, if we look at the job that both drivers are doing, both Valtteri and Checo [Perez], they’re doing way more than drivers in some other teams are having to do, because we’re constructing the team while we’re racing at the same time, and that’s a very unusual task.”

Bottas joined Cadillac alongside Sergio Perez after both drivers spent the 2025 season on the sidelines, having lost their respective seats at Audi (then Sauber) and Red Bull at the end of 2024.

It is understood that both agreed multi-year contracts with Cadillac, which has joined the grid as F1’s 11th team in 2026.

“With all due respect, the outside world doesn’t know what we’re asking these drivers to do,” Lowdon added.

“Either session to session or race to race, and also what we’re asking them to do in terms of developing the car.

“It’s clear that we’re trying to get more pace into the car, although you know, I have to say that again, there were similar rumours before we even started racing, suggesting that we’d struggle to get within 107 per cent of qualifying.

“It was just a few fractions of a per cent in Montreal, where we missed out on advancing in the Sprint Qualifying again, so there’s not only no foundation of truth, but there’s no logic either to what anybody’s saying.

“In terms of rumours, and to be honest, I haven’t read all of them, but a few that I’ve read just don’t even seem to take into account some of the absolute basic rules of Formula 1, because some of them suggest they would put Colton in to replace Valtteri in the next few races, or whatever.

“Colton doesn’t have any super license points (sic), and to some extent, that probably says it all about the quality of some of the rumours, but I prefer not to focus on pointing out the obvious. I think the fans can see through all of that.

“Colton has a programme that he’s working to, Checo has a programme with us that he’s working to, and Valtteri the same; they’re all contributing in their own way to what we’re trying to do in establishing the Cadillac Formula 1 team.

“It’s very important to make it abundantly clear that there is absolutely not one shred of actual truth or evidence to any of the rumours suggesting that either Valtteri is at risk or indeed that Checo might go to another team.”

Cadillac currently sits 10th in the constructors’ championship and is yet to score a point.