Valtteri Bottas slams "b*******" Cadillac F1 exit rumours

The F1 veteran has criticised those who have recently linked him to an early exit from Cadillac

Valtteri Bottas has criticised the “b*******” rumours linking him to an early exit from the Cadillac Formula 1 outfit after a tricky start to the 2026 campaign.

Speculation began swirling in certain corners of the industry that Bottas was at risk of losing his seat at the debutant F1 team, his first full-time drive since leaving Sauber at the end of 2024.

The rumours came after being second-best to team-mate Sergio Perez across the opening five grands prix, as the Mexican has outqualified him on four of the past five occasions including sprints.

But with a two-year contract at Cadillac, Bottas is ignoring the rumours as the 10-time grand prix winner thinks “headlines” and “clicks” are the only reason they started ahead of Monaco this weekend.

“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, whose seat was constantly under question during his five-season stint 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.”

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing, Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

Cadillac is without a point this season having been a backmarker as expected and it is not since round two in Shanghai that Bottas has finished ahead of Perez on the road.

That prompted the Finn’s side of the garage to take a deep dive into why he is suffering a performance drop compared to Perez and Bottas is “confident” they understand what’s gone wrong.

“I caught up with the team last week about it,” he said. “We could see issues, both on the PU side and the car build side, that's as much as I can give you.

“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.”