Valtteri Bottas: 10 F1 Wins, 20 Poles and a Cadillac Comeback

Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing Formula 1 Driver Spotlight - where we pull one driver into the garage, look under the hood at their career, and tell you what makes them tick. This week: the number 77.

The Short Version

Valtteri Bottas is the Finn who spent five seasons in the second Mercedes, won 10 grands prix, took 20 pole positions, and finished runner-up in the Formula 1 world championship twice without ever landing the trophy. He turned 37 this week, and he is back on the grid in 2026 driving for Cadillac, the newest team in the sport. If you only know one thing about him, know this: he has scored 1,797 career points, the second-most of any driver in Formula 1 history who never won a title.

From Nastola to a Williams Seat

Bottas was born on August 28, 1989, in Nastola, a small Finnish town that is now part of the city of Lahti. He started karting at six, studied automotive engineering, completed Finland's mandatory military service, and then ran the junior ladder about as cleanly as anyone could ask: the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2008, back-to-back Masters of Formula 3 wins in 2009 and 2010, and the GP3 Series in 2011.

That earned him a Williams test role, then a race seat in 2013. His debut came at the Australian Grand Prix, where he finished 14th in a car that was nowhere. The signal came later that year in Canada, when he dragged that Williams to third on the grid in wet qualifying. In 2014 the team found real speed, and so did he: six podiums, his first coming at the Austrian Grand Prix, and fourth place in the championship. Across four Williams seasons he stood on the podium nine times.

Five Seasons in the Second Mercedes

When Nico Rosberg won the 2016 title and retired five days later, Mercedes needed a driver fast. They picked Bottas. He took his first pole in Bahrain in 2017 and his first win at the Russian Grand Prix that April, holding off Sebastian Vettel to get it done. He finished third in the standings that year with three wins.

The next four years were the strange part of his career. He was fast enough to win races and take poles in bunches, and he was in the same garage as Lewis Hamilton at Hamilton's peak. Bottas won four races in 2019 and finished second in the championship. He won two more in 2020 and finished second again. He also helped Mercedes to five straight constructors' championships, which is the part of his record that does not get talked about enough. His last win came at the Turkish Grand Prix in October 2021, from pole, in the rain.

Signature Moments

Pick three and you have the whole driver. Sochi 2017 was the breakthrough, a first win at 27 after four years in cars that could not deliver one. Austria 2020 was the pandemic-season opener, led from pole. Turkey 2021 was the goodbye, a controlled drive in bad conditions that reminded everyone what he was good at.

Then came the news nobody saw coming in August 2025, when Formula 1's newest team announced its first driver lineup.

BREAKING: Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez will race for Cadillac Formula 1 Team in 2026!

- Formula 1 (@F1) August 26, 2025

By the Numbers

Here is the career so far. Every figure below is a Formula 1 career total through the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix.

The Cadillac Chapter

Bottas lost his Sauber seat after a pointless 2024 season and spent 2025 as the Mercedes reserve driver. Then Cadillac, the 11th team on the grid and the General Motors entry that took years to get approved, hired him and Sergio Perez for its debut season. Bottas runs the number 77 in a car powered by a customer Ferrari engine and gearbox while GM builds its own power unit for the end of the decade.

The first year has been exactly as hard as new teams usually find it. Through 12 rounds Cadillac is the only team on the grid without a point. Bottas has retired six times, and his best finish is 13th in China back in March. The team changed leadership in August, with Marcin Budkowski replacing Graeme Lowdon as team principal ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix. Bottas has stayed level about all of it, telling Motorsport.com this month that "we've been able to pick up the pace and get the car more reliable" and that the way the team operates is "getting better and better."

Off the Track

Bottas is one of the few drivers on the grid whose second sport is nearly as serious as his first. He is an accomplished gravel cyclist who races events like SBT GRVL and the UCI Gravel World Championships, and his partner is Australian professional cyclist Tiffany Cromwell. With the SBT GRVL organizers they founded FNLD GRVL, a gravel race in his home city of Lahti that drew close to a thousand riders from 27 countries in its first running in 2023.

He also has a sense of humor about himself that is rare in this sport. His self-deprecating charity calendar raised roughly $150,000 for Movember and prostate cancer research, and the mullet he grew during his Alfa Romeo years became a genuine fan-culture moment. Finnish drivers have a reputation for saying nothing. Bottas mostly proved you can be quiet and still be funny.

The Bottom Line

Valtteri Bottas is the best kind of Formula 1 driver to root for: fast enough to beat almost anybody on his day, unlucky enough to spend his prime years in the other car, and stubborn enough to come back at 37 to build something new from nothing. The title never came. The record book still lists him near the top of a lot of pages, and the Cadillac story is only 12 races old.

Fly the 77. A few Bottas-era Formula 1 pieces in stock right now:

• Alfa Romeo Racing F1 Valtteri Bottas Special Edition Hoodie
• Alfa Romeo Racing F1 2023 Team Full-Zip Sweatshirt
• Alfa Romeo Racing F1 Limited Edition Reversible Bucket Hat
• Stake F1 Sauber Kick Team Zip Sweatshirt
• Stake F1 Sauber Kick Team Polo Shirt

See the rest in the Formula 1 collection. New driver spotlights drop every week.