Our Reaction to Bottas AND Perez Joining Cadillac in 2026

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Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast

with Matt and Tommy, Emergency Edition.

Now, you may well have noticed we're in, we're in person

and we did, in fact, border flight the moment Cadillac

pressed the green light, the red button to say,

yes, we will announce both Bottas and Perez for 2026.

So we're here finally,

that literally the second we could record, we are.

So here we are.

What's your reaction, Tommy?

My reaction was, I can't believe they waited

literally for the second we got on the flight.

I even checked Twitter thinking that this news might appear

at some point this week.

It was very heavily rumored and it came up on my Twitter.

58 seconds ago they posted it

and we were literally ready to take off

and I was basically about to send my phone to Availability.

We were watching the video

as well and I just saw a moustache and I said, oh no.

Oh no, they're announcing.

I thought it was maybe just Bottas.

No, both of them.

Both drivers, yeah.

So, yes, Valtteri and Sergio back in Formula One.

First thoughts.

Experience.

Very experienced.

You can see what they're doing.

Yeah, well look, we talked about this, didn't we?

And we said, you know, they could go down the route

of one experienced, one young talent.

They could go for both experience,

considering they are a new team on the grid

and they want to try and shape their team

in a sort of good mold for something that makes sense.

And I'm not particularly surprised by it, to be honest with you.

This is a long-term project for Cadillac.

Of course, in 2029 they're going to be doing their own engines,

but for now Ferrari.

Look, it's not the most exciting thing from a,

you know, you don't have like a drug of itch or something

that you go, oh, I wonder how they're going to do.

I am intrigued to see how they will be against each other.

I've seen a lot of jokes about you

in the battle of the number two driver and things like that.

Well, because they were the team players for 2021

championship of Hamilton versus Verstappen, weren't they?

And now we're going to see them together.

Who knows?

Maybe even with Christian Horner as team principal.

Oh my God.

Can you imagine?

What battle turn?

Please, no.

What alternate universe are we in?

But you can understand what they're doing, can't you,

in terms of, it's all about experience.

Bottas and Perez are two of the most, you know,

they're both race winners.

And they've also been in Formula One for ages.

And you can't really argue that you could have got anyone

any more experience than those two, really.

No, no, it's a lot of, I mean, what were they,

but combined age, be like over 70, I'd imagine.

Yeah, it was 70.

They'll be the oldest team on the grid with the combined ages.

The newest team, but the oldest team.

There you go.

My first question would be on Pedro, remember Katie,

who do you think will get more points in 2026?

Perez or Bottas?

I'm locking in Bottas immediately, Valtteri.

And the reason that I'm doing that is because Valtteri's,

he is a quali god.

And we are in a quali championship.

What that will look like next year, who knows, right?

But I'm not expecting a massive overhaul of Formula One

where all of a sudden we can overtake again.

So look, if a lot of races are determined on a Saturday

and at least points opportunities are determined on a Saturday,

then I think Bottas, I know he was in one of the best cars ever made,

but he also has some of the best Q3 streak of anyone in Formula One.

So that's why I am going for Valtteri Bottas more points.

I'm going for Perez.

And I'm very confident it's going to be Perez, actually.

I completely disagree.

Because a Bottas is salvastant.

Is that what you're judging on?

Yeah, yeah.

He was having fun then, Tommy.

He was just chilling.

He's having fun now.

He's loved it.

He started in.

I think that, you know, they've hired two drivers very similar

in terms of experience.

For me, I have my opinions on Bottas and his race craft

and or lack of.

And look, he's very good at qualifying.

I could see him being good at qualifying.

But last year we saw Bottas, what he could do

in arguably the worst car on the grid.

And I think that was one of the most important points.

The race where the sub was actually pretty decent.

Joe Guan Yu got those points because it was all about

maximizing that result when it was about making moves

and overtaking.

And I actually think that Sergio Perez, while he's got this

bad reputation of what happened at Red Bull,

was when he was in a midfield car, he was the guy

that got you.

I didn't think he's going to get podiums.

Don't get me wrong.

I think he's using positions in those crazy races.

And Cadillac might be in a position where the only times

they're going to get good points finishes is maybe

a crazy race.

And I would back Perez all day long to be the driver that

if you put them both on soft tyres at the end of a race,

who's going to be the one that's carving the way

through the field, I would say Perez and Bottas

stuck behind the DRS train.

Wow.

Or even going backwards.

Tommy and the Bottas hater coming out once again.

I'm not even a Bottas hater.

Yeah, you tell that to your opinions.

Yeah.

I know we love to share this amazing stat that Bottas

was in, like you said.

Oh, well done.

You got into Q3 a hundred times in the best car on the grid

when there's no reliability problems.

Anyone else managed to do that?

I think half the grid would if they were in his position.

But did they?

Did Hamilton do that?

Did Hamilton do it?

No, because he had mechanical problems.

Oh, here we go.

Yeah, there we go.

It's fine.

Look, I'm team Bottas.

Tommy's team Perez.

And let's see.

We now know in the comments which team you're on.

I think both, right?

I'm not saying Perez can have a stinker.

That's not what I'm saying here.

No.

But I think the Bottas could.

We could see a rejuvenation.

And that's why we love this agreement.

Next question from DC Wrestle.

Where do you think Cadillac will finish in their first season

with such experienced drivers?

Look, I know they're experienced drivers,

but we've seen in the past that I think I'm throwing back

all the way to 2010 where Lotus, they decided

we're going to get two very experienced drivers

who were race winners as well.

Covaliner and truly.

And the car was an absolute nightmare.

And they couldn't do anything.

Now, I don't think that Cadillac are going to be that bad.

They're going to have their work cut out

for sure being a new team.

But we've seen that that's probably not the norm anymore

because I think they are doing the right thing

with what we saw with Haas.

Because you look at Haas, it was very controversial

at the time that they were like,

we're going to take parts from Ferrari.

Now it's a bit more common and a lot of teams do it.

If they'd gone in from building their own engines

from the start, it's P21 and 22 locked in.

However, we saw what Haas could do with a Ferrari engine.

If that Ferrari engine is good in an engine formula,

they've got a chance of being able to be there.

I don't think they're going to be a million miles

back personally with that approach.

I think that approach is better because it may sound

laughable to think that they're not going to be last.

But look what Haas did.

I think they were six in their very first race

because they used the Ferrari power unit was very good.

That was an engine formula then.

And if that power unit is good from Ferrari,

which we're expecting it to be, they could be good.

Let's not keep saying that.

We can't start the delusion train already.

I'm more leaning towards Cadillac not being great

in this first season.

I think that the driver lineup in my mind suggests that.

That almost seems like...

We're going to struggle.

Let's get a couple of guys and it'll fix our team,

fix our car, take us in the right direction from round one.

That's where I'm leaning towards.

There's no disrespect to Cadillac,

but I feel as though it's not like,

yeah, we're going to get two rookie drivers in.

I'm feeling good.

We're going to hit the sort of ground running.

I just don't necessarily see that with the Bottas and Perez lineup,

but that's not to say that they can't build on that.

And perhaps 2029 is where their goal is

and all that sort of stuff.

So I'm leaning more towards, again, as well also,

who's to say that the Ferrari engine will be amazing.

I know that we're saying that it might,

but 2026 is such a lottery

that it's really difficult to answer this question.

But I'm leaning more towards...

Until we do what championship predictions for 2026

pre-F1 testing and you're saying

Charlotte Clair is going to win the championship.

Sorry, didn't need the spoilers, did you?

Didn't need to...

You know, you don't know what I'm going to say next year.

Next question from P1 Patreon member,

a good Karen.

I can't be the only one disappointed that two new seats

on the grid have gone to two older drivers

who are close to retirement

instead of giving more young drivers a chance.

Can I?

No, it's absolutely fair enough to feel this way,

especially because, yeah,

the queue to get into Formula One just constantly grows.

I think the Drugovich, of course,

was a driver that was sort of lightly rumoured

to potentially get a shot.

Mick Schumacher as well, who, I don't know,

I don't know if I would have been as excited as perhaps

seeing a Drugovich go in, just purely because

we have seen Mick on the grid.

It's not an exciting lineup.

It's not a...

It's not what you want to see, I guess, in some ways,

if you're looking for...

Because that's the whole...

New talent, yeah.

The exciting thing about Formula One is you have new talent.

How are they going to fare?

Then you have, you know, Bortoletto, for example,

doing phenomenally well so far in his rookie season.

So those kind of storylines we're not going to get.

However, I think if we look at it, flip it to a positive side,

it'll be quite nice to see a Perez sort of redemption arc

after everything he went through,

which he couldn't handle that Red Bull.

We also can see that no one can handle that Red Bull.

And we've also sort of, you know,

apologised for that and the fact that we were unfamiliar

with the Red Bull second-seat game as far as it's gone,

where it's just nobody can handle that.

So a Perez redemption arc would be quite lovely to see.

A Bottas redemption arc as well,

because Tommy thinks he's in the mud finished

and all he cares about is his mullet.

So there are still things, I think, to keep an eye on.

And it will be, I think, feel-good moments.

You know, if Perez in a crazy race does get a podium,

that will be a cool thing to see.

That would be insane, yeah.

I think, yeah, it is disappointing.

We've had this trend where, for so long, older drivers

were kind of hogging the seats, if you like.

And then as soon as we had that kind of one moment

where, you know, rookies came in, look at last year

and all the rookies, sorry, the start of this year,

all the rookies that came in,

it kind of did feel like Oscar Piestri and Liam Lawson

and it kind of opened the floodgates of,

okay, let's put our faith in young talent.

And I would have personally really liked to have seen

a young driver.

I'd have loved to have seen Drugovich go in personally

to see what he can do.

He's highly aware he's got youth on his side

more than the drivers that are there.

I do understand why they do it.

They've gone for this lineup,

but it does feel like they've picked

basically two very similar drivers

with lots of experience who are,

and this is why, you know, me and you have disagreed

on who we think is going to do better

because they're very, I think most people

would kind of agree that they are similar drivers in performance.

Yeah, similar standard, yeah.

Standard and have had quite similar careers

in the fact that, you know, they've won a few races.

They've been number two drivers to world champions,

but they've also done a lot of races

and had good results in midfield cars as well.

So, yeah, I would have liked to have seen a rookie passing.

So I do understand the frustration.

Yeah, but I guess we also got used to the fact that,

as you say, young talent was coming through

the doors left, right and centre.

We're like, wow, this is the norm in the world, hold on.

This isn't the absolute norm.

And Cadillac have their own aims and goals

clearly with that team that suggests

that they need to build something from the ground up.

And also, unfortunately, for that side of it,

we had this conversation about Daniel Ricciardo

back in the day, of course, you know,

I've seen loads of memes flying around about Daniel Ricciardo

and, oh, why didn't he get the seat?

He didn't want it.

And he said very publicly,

I didn't want to return Formula One.

I've had enough.

And with these two drivers...

He said had enough, but fully.

He said it's not going to happen at Cadillac and stuff.

So it feels like that was never going to happen

for Daniel Ricciardo.

But the...

But Perez and Bottas are also very well known.

Sergio Perez, of course, brings a huge fan base.

So that's a great side.

He'll bring loads and loads of sponsors.

And Bottas is also a well-known name himself

and will make some great TikTok content.

You are such a hater.

He's an absolute hater.

He's more than just a TikTok attorney, all right?

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Next question comes in from Heggy Munia

with both drivers having a weekend to their previous F1 stint.

Who has more to prove with Cadillac?

Well, I guess Bottas people have forgotten his stint at Salba.

Yeah, I haven't.

People are obviously happy to see him back.

I don't think his reputation is as bad as Perez

and I think it's completely unfair,

Perez's reputation now based on what we have seen.

Liam Lawson and Yuki Sonoda have basically done the research

for us that Perez isn't going to be anywhere near as bad as that.

He's not forgotten how to drive a Formula One car.

And he's going to go, you know, this was a driver

that did very good things in midfield cars,

got podiums in forced Indias and things like that.

So I want to race for racing point.

But he is going to, yeah,

I think Perez is going to be the one that if he delivers

and say we do have this miracle race where it's a crazy race

and he bags like a P6 or P7,

you know that all the social media and chats

on every single video and podcast will be,

oh, Perez is actually good.

We can forget about that red bull stint.

And I feel like he can prove a lot of people wrong with that.

Yeah, I do love the, he won a race at the racing point

where you also believe that that racing point

that you should have won the championship.

No, not quite that much.

I think Perez for sure,

just purely from a recency bias type situation.

I don't think Bottas has sort of had his Mercedes stint

and then just, it's just dwindled, hasn't it?

Just he went to Sauber and just had a great time.

He just had some Sunday drives, just chilled.

Yeah, so it was kind of just like, ah, you know,

you're having a Kimi Reichenan into your career kind of thing.

That was what Bottas was sort of doing.

Whereas Perez, yeah, it was like a just absolutely out of nowhere

drop of form massively.

Yeah, I think that it has to be him for sure.

But there's no sort of denying that he can do that.

So we will see, can Cadillac give them a good car?

P1 Pedro, remember Alonso makes me feel funny.

Wow, that is not my better name.

No.

Why would Cadillac not try and get a driver from the USA?

Do they have an experienced driver from the USA to pick from?

No.

That kind of goes back to the whole, you know,

what sort of route do they want to go with their drivers,

the experience we've spoken about.

You've got some drivers in an Indy car that they could have gone for

and things like that.

But realistically, that's clearly not what they want to go for

and they've got Bottas on a diving board holding an American flag.

Is he going to ditch the Australian nationality?

Yeah, he's a third of all of them.

As simple as they didn't have a driver that they felt comfortable

enough probably to be able to build a team.

No, and I think it's absolutely the right approach

so they don't just rush someone through just because they're American.

Just for the sake of it, yeah.

Look at Logan Sargent and how badly he performed.

He was another one where all the conversation was

we need an American F1, F1's booming.

Williams really pushed for him to the point

where it almost looked like he wasn't going to get

enough super license points and they still got him in.

Look how badly it went.

I think, you know, when an American maybe, you know,

there's many in Formula 2 and Formula 3

that might come through the ranks,

as soon as someone is good enough and ready,

I'm sure Cadillac will very much want to jump at that chance

to get an American on board.

But at the same time, I think people over egg the fact

that obviously not speaking for all American fans,

but look at the reaction to when they did those driver intros

and how much of a cheer or lack of that Logan Sargent got.

I think you'll kind of, you'll get enough support,

but people will always support like the top drivers

and they will always be more popular than just flat out

here's someone from America.

So I don't think they need to rush someone through

for the sake of it.

The hype of Colton Herter very much has died down a lot

with how well other drivers now are doing in IndyCar

and it feels like when Andretti, who of course,

this is part of that bid,

we're really pushing for him at the start.

That hype has massively died down

and yeah, they've gone for two experienced drivers

that are going to basically see them into a new era

and then of course, because naturally of their age,

they're not going to be there for like five, six, seven years.

Yeah, maybe.

And Hamilton as well in his 40s,

they do stay around for a while.

I think that as much as a lot of you listening

and watching are probably not going to be too excited

by this two ex-drivers coming back,

but it does show that Cadillac is serious

because Bottas and Perez would not be cheap.

As much as they are number two drivers,

oh, they're not that great, they would not be cheap.

They are proven race winners.

As we've said, they've got plenty of podiums between them.

They wouldn't have been cheap.

This is a full-blown investment.

As much as I've joked about my opinion on Bottas

and also people have their opinions on Perez and stuff,

they have two race winners in a brand new team

and big names that people know.

So it is a strong lineup

and I think there's a reason

they've announced them together as well of like,

yeah, we're Cadillac, we're not messing around.

Two experienced drivers, two race winners.

So yeah, can totally see why they've done it.

And there we go. That is our reaction

to Bottas and Perez coming back to Formula One in 2026.

Thanks for joining us here in Amsterdam.

We've got our live shows on Wednesday and Thursday this week,

which is very exciting.

If you're coming along,

can't wait to see you in a few days.

Australia as well.

We've announced our talk there as well.

So if you haven't seen that,

go and check it out on Instagram.

And that is it. Tell me what are your final thoughts?

Final thoughts?

Love you really, Valtteri.

No, you don't.

I did enjoy the memes.

I liked that it was real.

Don't worry, Valtteri, I'm here for you.

I will support you.

Bye.

Don't dare get P23 now.

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