Cadillac still has not scored a point in its first year on the grid, and the clock is ticking on its 2027 driver lineup. The Americans sit 11th and last in the constructors’ standings on zero after the United States Grand Prix in Austin on 25 October, where Sergio Perez finished 19th and Bottas retired with an engine failure, according to Race Fans’ race report.
The debut campaign was built around experience. Perez returned to the grid after a year out, Bottas returned to full-time racing after his Sauber exit, and the pairing was supposed to give the new constructor a stable platform. One of those two is now openly under pressure.
Team principal Marcin Budkowski did little to end the speculation at the US Grand Prix, telling reporters in a quote carried by Grande Premio that calls and contacts were coming in “from every driver or driver manager that is on the market”.
Beyond the Flag has since named three drivers as the most plausible replacements if the team pulls the trigger on Bottas: Colton Herta, Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon.
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Herta’s super licence race
Colton Herta is the name Cadillac keeps circling back to. The American is already the team’s reserve driver, and the team confirmed him for another FP1 session at the Mexico City Grand Prix this weekend as he tries to top up his FIA Super Licence tally. Herta currently has 38 licence points, two short of the 40 required to race, and Cadillac itself believes it should be 39, according to Grande Premio.
His Formula 2 season has not helped the case, with Herta ranked 19th in the standings. But the commercial pull of putting an American in an American team on the grid in 2027 keeps him in the conversation.
Tsunoda, back from reserve duty
Yuki Tsunoda lost his Red Bull race seat to Isack Hadjar for 2026 and spent the year in a reserve role, but he was pulled back onto the grid for three races when Hadjar was ruled out injured and Liam Lawson was promoted to Red Bull. The Japanese driver scored a point with a P10 at Monza, as grandprix247.com reported, and has been linked with Cadillac since.
Tsunoda has made no secret of where he wants to be in 2027, telling Planet F1: “My mentality is always in Formula 1. My main goal is to always be driving in Formula 1 and have success.”
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Haas exit puts Ocon back in the market
Esteban Ocon’s position changed on 30 September, when he confirmed on social media that he would leave Haas at the end of 2026. In a statement reported by GPFans, Ocon said he was leaving “with my head held high” and insisted this was “absolutely not the end” of his Formula 1 career. Haas has since lined up Formula 2 title contender Rafael Camara as his replacement.
The exit has pushed Ocon into the pool of experienced drivers looking for a drive, with Cadillac an obvious name on the shortlist, even if more recent reporting from Crash.net on 27 October suggests he is not currently viewed inside the team as a serious candidate.
Herta is up first. His next run in the Cadillac is scheduled for FP1 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez on Friday.
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