After months of hype during the build-up to its debut, the Cadillac team has failed to score a single point during the F1 2026 season, and throughout the United States Grand Prix weekend, rumours about possible replacements began to fly.
Those rumours have suggested that one of the team’s drivers, Valtteri Bottas, could lose his Formula 1 seat for 2027. And, according to team CEO Dan Towriss, his replacement could be none other than Colton Herta.
Valtteri Bottas replacement rumours run rampant
Cadillac went all-out for its first United States Grand Prix as an official team. A special livery, cowboy hats for crew members, and a fan-forward event on Friday night paved the way for a less-than-impressive event on Sunday: Valtteri Bottas retired from the race, while Sergio Perez finished 19th, the last driver running on track.
Yet throughout the weekend, a thread emerged: Bottas could find himself without a seat in 2027.
The rumours stemmed from a comment made by team principal Marcin Budkowski during the weekend’s team boss press conference. Asked about future options for 2027, he replied, “As a team principal, and I’m sure it’s the same with my colleagues, you’re getting calls and contacts from every driver or driver manager that is on the market.
“So, there are a number of drivers and managers who have contacted me. I’m not going to say who it is or who it isn’t, but pretty much all of them that are on the market have been in touch, as you’d expect.
“But yes, I think it’s the last place here, as you can imagine, where I would communicate anything on driver line-up. My marketing and communications department would kill me if I did that!”
Budkowski was asked directly to if both Bottas and Perez had contracts for 2027, to which he replied, “This is the last place I would comment on driver contracts, and in general, I think it’s not something that is done in the press.
“It’s something which will be done by official releases from the team when the time is right.”
Perez is understood to have a contract in the works. That could leave Bottas the odd man out come 2027.
Colton Herta emerges as possible Bottas replacement
If Bottas is out of the picture, who could replace him? According to Cadillac CEO Dan Towriss, the answer could be none other than Colton Herta.
Speaking to SiriusXM on the grid before the race, Towriss said, “I think over the next few weeks we’ll be able to talk more about what we’re doing on drivers. Obviously we’ve got Checo and Valtteri on contract, we love what they’re doing. Obviously Valtteri has had a few races where he’s been off the race pace, so we’re talking about that, and we’ll see what happens.”
When he was asked directly if that meant Herta could have a chance at the F1 team, Towriss replied, “Yeah, there’s always a chance.”
The 26-year-old American driver left behind a career in the IndyCar series to enter Formula 2 in 2026 with an eye to securing the Super License points required to move up to F1 in the future. However, it’s been a difficult year. At the time of writing, Herta is 19th in the standings, having scored just 26 points. A finish that low in the running order will not give Herta any Super License points for 2027.
However, there’s still a chance that Herta could amass enough Super License points nevertheless.
At the moment, it is unclear how many SL points Herta possesses. Cadillac maintains that he holds 39 points after his most recent FP1 outing in Austin, while other calculations leave him with 38 — either one or two points shy of the license, depending on the math.
It is critical that Herta secure his license this year; come January 1, 2027, Herta will lose 30 points that he amassed for a runner-up finish in the IndyCar championship in 2024. In order to secure those points, he could take part in additional FP1 outings at upcoming races like Mexico City. After hitting 40 points, he could apply for his license before the end of the season.
Once a driver holds a Super License, he only needs to show that he has driven at least 100 km at an F1-sanctioned event in the previous three years in order to achieve a renewal.
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