Bottas returns to lead Cadillac's F1 charge in 2026 season

Valtteri Bottas has spent the past year watching Formula One from the inside without ever taking part.

- AGENCIES

Officially, he has been Mercedes' reserve, attending briefings, analyzing data, and staying fit in case he was needed. Unofficially, he has been a man waiting for another chance.

That chance will come next season, when Bottas returns to the grid with Cadillac. The American manufacturer's arrival is a bold move from Detroit on F1's global stage, and for Bottas, it represents a route back into a world he never wanted to leave.

"Getting this seat has been my target for a while," he says. "This opportunity opened up, and I feel 100 percent good about it."

The ultimate player:

To understand the weight of this comeback, it helps to look back at Bottas's years at Mercedes. When he joined in 2017, it was to replace Nico Rosberg - the only man at that point to have beaten Lewis Hamilton in equal machinery. Bottas quickly learned the scale of that task, reports Xinhua.