Valterri Bottas once expressed his views on Christian Horner and Red Bull amid rumours he is due to drive for Cadillac in Formula 1 next season.
The 35-year-old Finnish driver is currently on the F1 sidelines having taken up a reserve driver role with Mercedes this year.
Before then, he had participated in nearly 250 Grand Prix after making his debut for Williams in 2013.
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He moved to Mercedes in 2017 after the sudden retirement of 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg and partnered Lewis Hamilton for the Silver Arrows.
Over the next five seasons, Bottas won 10 races for Mercedes and contributed to five Constructors' Championships for the team, also finishing as runner-up to Hamilton twice.
He joined Sauber for 2022 and stayed with the Swiss outfit for the next three years.
But after not scoring a point last season, Bottas departed the team as it prepares to become the Audi works team in 2026 and he rejoined his old team Mercedes as back-up, in case either George Russell or Kimi Antonelli are unable to race.
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However, Bottas is keen to get back on the grid for next season when F1's next big rule change will take place, with revised hybrid engines replacing the current powertrains which have been in place since 2014.
A new team in the form of Cadillac will also be joining the grid, making it the first fresh squad since Haas arrived in 2016 and will mean 22 cars competing on track.
The two drivers the American team are due to turn to are, according to The Race, Sergio Perez - who left Red Bull at the end of 2024 - and Bottas as Cadillac opts for a vastly experienced line-up to aid its arrival to the F1 grid.
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Earlier this year, Red Bull sacked Horner from his role as team principal, a job which he had for 20 years and had overseen the team's rise to become one of F1's dominant forces.
Horner oversaw eight Drivers' Championship wins in two spell of domination with Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, as well as six Constructors' Championships.
Horner is widely expected to return to the F1 paddock in some way, shape or form in the future and he has been tipped to play a part at some point in the Cadillac operation.
If that happens, then he could be working with Bottas - and the Finn made his views clear on Red Bull and Horner when he was quizzed on the topic earlier this year.
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Given Red Bull's well documented second driver struggles - as several have been unable to keep pace with all-time great Verstappen in the same car - Bottas revealed earlier this year he had not been contacted by the Milton Keyes based team.
Red Bull replaced Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda after only two races of the 2025 season and the latter has delivered few points since being transferred from Racing Bulls.
And though he did not name names, Bottas believed there are certain individuals at Red Bill who are 'not a big fan' of him.
Speaking to the Beyond The Grid podcast, Bottas said: "It just [got] put down quite quickly because I think there's certain persons, or a person, within the Red Bull organisation that for some reason is not a big fan of mine.
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"I don't know if they look outside their academy. They have so many drivers, they've got their junior team as well. It's a tough one because it seems like it's not an easy car to drive. Obviously, Max is doing the job. He's really pushing almost beyond the limits of the car. And whoever has been alongside him hasn't looked great.
"But I don't know. I just wonder if that car, to be driven fast, needs a driver with experience. That's my speculation, but I think they know that I'm keen to race.
"They know that I would be available for next year. But I don't know their mindset on that."
Topics: Red Bull Racing, Christian Horner, Mercedes, Formula 1
John McDougall