Valtteri Bottas returned to the Formula 1 this season with Cadillac, after spending the 2025 season as a reserve driver with Mercedes. Alongside Sergio Pérez, Cadillac trusted on his expertise to build a strong foundation for the new American F1 team, but the 36-year-old Finnish driver hasn't provided the results the team was expecting of him.
Bottas still hasn't won any point, alongside four others including his teammate Pérez, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, and Nico Hulkenberg. However, Cadillac is very dissatisfied with Bottas, who has finished no higher than 13th place (16th, 18th, and 19th) in the first five races, and sometimes finished tenths of a second behind Pérez in the qualifying sessions.
According to Sky Italia and BILD, they are even considering demoting him early in the season.
The Monaco Grand Prix next week (June 5-7) will be key. If Bottas doesn't improve his performance, he could be side-lined, and instead Colton Herta, working as reserve driver and widely expected to take one of the main seats in the not too distant future, could be promoted earlier.