Standing in his new Australian home with McLaren Vale vineyards in the background, Valtteri Bottas backed Oscar Piastri, arguing that he only needs one of his rivals to have a bad race to recapture the lead of the Formula 1 drivers’ championship.
Speaking on Nine’s Today about his dream of settling with his Australian partner in the South Australian wine region, Bottas said Piastri still had “all the chances” left in the final three races to fight his McLaren teammate. He also stressed that no matter what happened, Piastri still had a “great career ahead of him.”
“He’s still got all the chances. There’s not many events left, but it only needs one bad race for one driver, and he’s back up there,” Bottas said.
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“So he’s got a great season, and we must remember he’s still so early on in his career.
“He’s got a great career ahead of him, no matter what happens this year.”
Valtteri Bottas has backed Oscar Piastri’s chances in the championship fight. LAT Images
In 2026, Bottas will re join the grid in the newly-announced 11th team, Cadillac, and partner with Sergio Perez.
The Finnish driver admitted that Cadillac is set to have their fully-functional Formula 1 car by January 2026, in preparation for their debut in Melbourne in March.
“Yeah, it’s getting there. I mean, it’s a completely new project,” Bottas added.
“Like a new team joining F1, there’s so much work to do.
“And I think the summer in Australia is going to be quite short for me because I’m going to start working in January with the new team.
“But so far, everything has been on plan. It’s been quite impressive that they’ve been able to build something from scratch that is still on plan and we should have a car in January.”
Perez and a group of Cadillac mechanics had an in-person track outing in Imola on Thursday AEDT to run laps in a loaned 2023 Ferrari and get the team to get comfortable trackside.
Valtteri Bottas and partner Tiffany Cromwell have bought in a vineyard in the South Australian wine region. Getty
While the car is still being built, Cadillac has been limited to the virtual world, mostly running simulations with drivers to get a feel for the 2026 calendar.
To have personnel on the track together was a huge milestone, admitted team principal Graeme Lowdon.
“I think everyone gets a little bit wrongly concerned, that in some way we can get an advantage by testing someone else’s car or something. But we’re not testing the car, we’re testing the people,” he said to Motorsport.com.
“Yes, we are looking to gain the advantage, but not from anything to do with the car.
“The advantages that we want is for our mechanics to have the same experience that all the mechanics in this pit lane are having every day working with each car.”
Cadillac will have their debut race in Albert Park for the season-opener in March 2026.
Bottas will now call Melbourne a ‘home race’ after buying a South Australian vineyard in the McLaren Vale with his partner, Australian cyclist Tiffany Cromwell.
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