Valtteri Bottas inching closer to F1 return, per report

Earlier this month, reporting surfaced that the incoming Cadillac Formula 1 team had reached an agreement with veteran driver Sergio Pérez to fill one of their two available seats for next season.

Now, a similar report has surfaced regarding veteran Valtteri Bottas.

According to a story from PlanetF1, the outlet that published the earlier report regarding Pérez, Bottas “is understood to be on the verge of signing a deal” with the incoming Cadillac operation, which joins the grid as the 11th team for next season. While PlanetF1 reports that Bottas has not put pen to paper on a contract as of yet, “multiple sources have indicated” to the outlet that “talks have reached a common ground,” and the driver “is in the final stages of reaching an agreement with Cadillac before putting pen to paper on a deal.”

Bottas sparked rumors of a move to Cadillac himself earlier this summer with a humorous post on social media, where he marveled at a Cadillac SUV and the “nice seat” that was available:

An experienced F1 driver, Bottas first debuted on the grid during the 2013 season with Williams. He spent four years on the grid with Williams, securing his maiden F1 podium at the 2014 Austrian Grand Prix with a third-place finish. He moved to Mercedes for the 2017 season, scoring his first F1 win at the 2017 Russian Grand Prix.

Bottas was part of a Mercedes team that, along with Lewis Hamilton, delivered Constructors’ Championship titles in each of his five seasons with the team, running from 2017 through the 2021 campaign. When Mercedes tapped George Russell as Hamilton’s teammate for the 2022 campaign, Bottas moved to Alfa Romeo, which rebranded as Sauber for the 2024 season.

Sauber replaced both Bottas and Zhou Guanyu ahead of the current campaign, and Bottas returned to Mercedes in a reserve role for this season.

Over his long F1 career, Bottas has ten wins, 20 pole positions, and 67 podium finishes.

Could his next podium come at Cadillac?