Perez linked with Cadillac F1 seat as Bottas picks up hefty driver dinner bill

But as soon as he was asked for his response to Verstappen’s comments, Russell was away. He clearly had been revved up to go all in on his thoughts on what had happened not only last weekend but also in general at Red Bull. His comments about trying to oust Christian Horner and then criticism of Verstappen’s reaction to his Budapest struggles were pointed, as were later references to the 2021 championship decider.

Perhaps it was the location at the end of a long season, perhaps it was the impeding departure of Lewis Hamilton, but something had fired Mercedes up as Toto Wolff also joined Russell later in the day to hit out at Horner. And it certainly provided a jolt of energy through the paddock as the finish line for the year drew nearer.

The fact remains that despite all of Red Bull’s mid-season struggles, it is still comfortably over 100 points clear of Mercedes in the standings, and both are struggling to match McLaren and Ferrari’s consistency across two cars.

Exciting headlines might have been made, but two other teams were fighting over the constructors’ title on Sunday night. If any true rivalry between Russell and Verstappen is going to develop on-track, then Mercedes in particular will need to deliver steps forward in 2025.

Party time at McLaren

As post-race parties go, McLaren’s ended up involving more than a bus ride to the venue. The McLaren Group is owned by Mumtalakat — the Bahraini sovereign wealth fund — and that naturally led to a large presence in Abu Dhabi for the season finale.

So when the title was secured, the team was informed its championship celebrations would be continuing across the Arabian Gulf, with a charter flight ready and waiting to take them to Bahrain.

It was all planned out with precision to get the team back to Abu Dhabi in the early hours of the following morning, with some needing to prepare for testing. Although as Oscar Piastri told me on SiriusXM: “I only have to be able to drive on Tuesday!”

A new team boss weighs up his options

The latest developments at the future Cadillac Formula 1 team did not take long to unfold as Graeme Lowdon was confirmed as team principal for the project this weekend.

Lowdon has been involved over the past few years and been able to speak directly with different stakeholders within the paddock, as he also manages Zhou Guanyu.

Naturally his appointment creates a further link between Zhou and Cadillac if there could be an option for the Chinese driver to return to the grid in future, but he will be among a number of experienced options currently available. Not that the potential pool of Zhou, Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo — of this year’s crop to have lost their seats — is completely good news for Cadillac, as the team feels it missed out on an extremely active driver market because it did not have a confirmed entry for 2026.

But another name now linked with a future seat is Sergio Perez, who is on the verge of leaving Red Bull. Once that departure is confirmed, Perez could be a major asset for a new team that is setting itself up, not to mention appealing from a marketing point of view. And it would afford him a bit of space from the challenges of this past season.

Three drivers who have won multiple races wanting to be part of a team that isn’t even on the grid yet is not a terrible place to be.

Esteban stays away

The abrupt departure of Esteban Ocon from Alpine opened the door for him to begin is future early, as he was completely released from the team and able to start work with Haas.

At one stage, Ocon was going to be present at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but in the Haas garage, learning about his new team and building relationships ahead of his test outing on Tuesday. It would have been a good opportunity to see how the team works, and provide a fresh comparison to the previous weekend with Alpine in Qatar.

In the end the decision was taken that it could prove to be a distraction, not only in terms of a lot of focus being on Ocon’s recent situation when he would want to be embedding himself within the team, but also taking away some of the limelight from Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen during their final race weekends with Haas.

First thing Monday morning, though, he will be heading to the track for the seat fit and to get down to business ahead of 2025, with no restrictions on what he can do now his Alpine contract has been ended a few weeks prematurely.

Sainz starts work immediately

If you are reading this column on Monday morning, then it’s not only Esteban Ocon who will be in a new garage in Abu Dhabi, as you are just a few hours from seeing Carlos Sainz in a Williams.

He’s only just finished his final race for Ferrari, but Sainz will be back at the Yas Marina Circuit on Monday and completing initial running in the FW46 as part of a filming day that the team still had available this year.

While he will be running on demonstration tyres, it’s actually a very useful outing for Sainz who can test his seating position and comfort with the pedals prior to Tuesday’s test, when he can carry out significant running as part of the Pirelli tyre test. Getting to iron out all of those smaller factors a day early is invaluable.

Plus it creates the quirky stat that he will have driven current F1 machinery on five consecutive days for two completely different teams.

VB foots the bill

The final race of the season has seen the majority of drivers meet up for dinner on the Thursday night in recent years, getting together after the past 12 months of fighting on track.

On this occasion, it was a dinner laced with even more intrigue as it came on the same day that Russell had hit out at Verstappen and sparked a reaction from much of the paddock.

And Russell’s late arrival (he wasn’t alone at being late, it must be added — with many drivers having other commitments first) created a situation where a seat had been saved for him next to Verstappen, which he declined to take.

It almost acted as a farewell dinner for some drivers, with a number facing uncertain futures with the grid all-but-confirmed for 2025, and it was one of the departing names — Valtteri Bottas — who picked up the bill.

It was an evening that cost Bottas in the region of £4250, something he says he was happy to do, knowing that he wouldn’t have to repeat it next year.