Bottas dismisses 'complete bullshit' Cadillac seat-loss rumours ahead of Monaco

Valtteri Bottas has publicly rejected rumours that his Cadillac seat is under threat, labelling the speculation “complete bullshit” ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix and insisting the team stands fully behind him despite a difficult start to the 2026 Formula 1 season.

The rumours emerged after Bottas was outqualified by team-mate Sergio Perez on four of the five opening weekends — including sprint sessions — and has not finished ahead of the Mexican on the road since round two in Shanghai. Cadillac, competing in their debut F1 season, are yet to score a point and have been operating as expected at the back of the field.

“It’s part of the sport, it’s not the first time I face those kind of rumours, but it’s a bit of a shame that somebody just makes up complete bullshit,” said Bottas, who endured similar seat speculation throughout his five seasons at Mercedes between 2017 and 2021. “But that’s normal in this sport, and I know my situation, team knows my situation, they support me 100%, so that’s why from my side it was okay in the end.”

Bottas holds a two-year contract with Cadillac and believes the rumours were driven purely by a desire for “headlines” and “clicks” rather than any genuine insight into his standing at the team.

The 10-time grand prix winner says Cadillac have already identified the root causes of his performance deficit relative to Perez, pointing to issues on both the power unit and the car build side. “We could see issues, both on the PU side and the car build side, that’s as much as I can give you,” he said. “But we can see reasons, which is good to see, but yeah, we need to keep working on the quality, on how we build the car, how we fit all the parts, and so on.”

Bottas, who joined Cadillac after departing Sauber at the end of 2024, expressed confidence that the team now understands what has gone wrong and is working to correct it as the season heads into its European phase.