The storyline around Formula One's newest team right now is a tale of two drivers. On one side of the garage we have Sergio Perez, heading into his home race, this weekend's Mexico City Grand Prix, having penned a contract extension which theoretically gives him a race seat there until 2029. Theoretically because, as his team-mate may prove in the coming weeks, a contract for a driver to race for a team in a given year doesn't necessarily mean it will happen in F1.

While Cadillac have been happy enough with Perez's performances to hand him a new deal, the same cannot be said of Valtteri Bottas. In fact, the Finn's future is uncertain right now, with Cadillac considering their options.

"There are a number of drivers and managers who have contacted me. I'm not going to say who it is or who it isn't, but pretty much all of them that are on the market have been in touch, as you'd expect. But this is the last place, as you can imagine, where I would communicate anything on driver line-up. My marketing and communications department would kill me if I did that."

Budkowski went on to add that driver news "will be done by official releases from the team when the time is right". Given both Perez and Bottas were given multi-year deals when they signed up for the Cadillac project, would official releases be necessary just to confirm both will continue?

And Cadillac have plenty of it. The only team yet to confirm its 2027 driver plans is Racing Bulls, and they are choosing only from drivers within the Red Bull programme. That means a Cadillac seat is the only one potentially available to the other drivers who don't have a race seat right now, giving the team all the negotiating leverage despite being F1's least performant squad.

Test driver Colton Herta will be considered if he gets enough points to land his superlicence, which they are confident will happen through FP1 appearances this year. Yuki Tsunoda represents an experienced option with more than 100 F1 starts to his name, and his managers have been in contact with Cadillac. Esteban Ocon wants to continue his F1 career after losing his Haas seat, though it is unlikely to be with the other American squad.

And then there is still a chance Cadillac will choose to stick with what they have for now. But there is certainly less certainty for Bottas right now than there is for Perez.