Valtteri Bottas clarifies F1 future after surprise Cadillac sacking

Valtteri Bottas has clarified that he has no concerns in the "near future" about retaining his Cadillac F1 race seat after the surprise sacking of Graeme Lowdon.

Lowdon was relieved of his duties during F1's summer break by CEO Dan Towriss, with former Alpine technical chief Marcin Budkowski appointed as his replacement. 

Cadillac has failed to score a point thus far during its debut F1 season, with its best result being Bottas's 13th in China as the team has battled reliability issues throughout the European leg of the campaign, including issues with the brakes catching fire and a suspension failure for team-mate Sergio Perez in Canada.

Bottas was regarded as a Lowdon signing, with the former team boss putting on an extraordinary press briefing to two media outlets, including RacingNews365, around the Monaco GP when rumours swirled that Bottas would be dropped, with Lowdon defending his driver.

Under the new leadership, Bottas has confirmed that he has no concerns over his immediate future in seeing out the season. 

"Not in the near future, no," Bottas replied to media, including RacingNews365, when asked if he had any concerns about his future.

"I'm still all set, obviously, for next year. But then eventually we're going to talk about what is happening beyond 2027, but that's not yet."

When then asked about Lowdon's departure, Bottas explained that he felt "time would tell" if it was the right decision, but that "something needed to change."

"I respect [the decision] and like with any change, time will always tell what change is good and what change is bad," Bottas said.

"I can't predict the future, and I don't know Marcin that well yet. I haven't worked with him in the past, and I've worked with Graeme quite a bit in the past, and it is just a personal relationship, but time will tell.

"I think that something needed to change; some of the issues we've had have been dragging along, but I didn't maybe expect such a big change.

"I was maybe expecting more stuff happening at the factory, but it is one of those things. 

"We as drivers don't see what needs to be changed sometimes when it comes to these things, because we're obviously very focused on the driving and performance and giving our feedback.

"We are not the people who structure the team; that is not our job."