Cadillac is closing on securing both Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez for its first Formula 1 driver line-up next season.
Discussions with both drivers are at an advanced stage, with main terms understood to have been agreed weeks ago - although, despite different reports claiming that first Perez and then Bottas had completed their deals, this does not mean the contracts have been signed.
Bottas and Perez have been favoured options for several months, although Cadillac bosses have held talks with several potential drivers - including ex-F1 driver Zhou Guanyu, 2022 Formula 2 champion and Cadillac sportscar driver Felipe Drugovich, and Alpine junior Paul Aron.
Then a meeting between stakeholders of the team - which is co-owned by General Motors and TWG Global - was held in late July, and a preference for experienced drivers was cemented.
Negotiations with the representatives of Bottas and Perez have since accelerated, although a potential announcement of at least one driver before F1's summer break did not come to pass.
Cadillac may instead confirm both at the same time, as early as the resumption of the F1 season next week, if the two deals are finalised swiftly - which is understood to be possible.
The team's owners could yet opt to only sign one contract, and leave the other to be finalised later, to maintain freedom to react to changes in the driver market. There has been tentative interest in Yuki Tsunoda or Jack Doohan should either become available.
But Cadillac is instead tipped to push on with locking down both drivers to accelerate its preparations for next season.
Perez is a free agent, while Bottas is a Mercedes reserve driver who would likely be cleared to start working with Cadillac swiftly. Signing both sooner would allow Cadillac to integrate them into its simulator development or even on-track running as there is understood to be an option for Cadillac to test an older car purchased from another team, to assist with its race team preparation.
Should Cadillac sign Bottas and Perez it would give the grid's newest team a pair of race-winning drivers who each finished runner-up in the world championship.
Bottas won 10 grands prix across five seasons with Mercedes, finishing second to team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the championship twice, before being dropped by Sauber at the end of 2024 having hoped to stay on until its transformation into Audi's works team in 2026.
Meanwhile Perez, a winner of six races, was dropped by Red Bull last year after four years alongside Max Verstappen - who he supported to Red Bull's first ever 1-2 in the drivers' world championship in 2023.
They are also among the most experienced in F1 history - Perez is eighth on the list of all-time starts (281) while Bottas is equal 13th (246). Only two drivers on the current grid - Hamilton and Fernando Alonso - have started more races.
That speaks to the fact both drivers are closer to the ends of their careers, and will each be 36 by the time next season begins, and it is also a reflection of how Bottas and Perez were rapidly and ruthlessly discarded by their former employers that they are available and willing to join a back-of-the-grid team.
But signing them would still be a coup for Cadillac. There is at least one vacancy at an established team on the grid next year - Alpine, which has had contact with Perez and Bottas. However, both are choosing to pursue multi-year deals with Cadillac instead.
Should this pairing be realised, Cadillac's aim will be to take advantage of their experience to assist with the team's core limitation - that so much will not be ready or proven, and it will be on the back foot from the beginning.
With its short lead time since only having an entry confirmed in November last year, the American team is expected to join the grid not just at the back but likely at quite a competitive disadvantage to start with. This means qualifying and racing at the back with a potentially significant margin to the next team.
In such a scenario, having two drivers who have proven F1 credentials, and know how to handle setbacks, will be an asset. Cadillac team principal Graeme Lowdon saw first-hand how Bottas coped with Sauber's shortcomings, for example, as Lowdon managed Bottas's team-mate Zhou.
Meanwhile, Perez spent years racing in midfield teams and was part of the embattled Force India set-up when it fell into administration in 2018 - then won for the team two years later in its reborn Racing Point era.
More importantly, though, Bottas and Perez both have several seasons of experience with dominant F1 teams, which will give Cadillac extremely useful references for processes, systems and infrastructure as it builds what it hopes will be a successful F1 entry from the ground up.
And while the nature of their exits from the F1 grid at the end of last year was a blow to both Bottas and Perez, they are still well regarded in F1 and seen as drivers with something to offer.
So although it could be viewed simply as picking up two rejected older drivers, Cadillac will be able to spin this line-up as a major vote of confidence in the project, as a new entry attracting race-winning drivers is extremely rare.
It did happen as recently as 2010, when the new team bearing the Lotus name signed one-time grand prix winners Heikki Kovalinen and Jarno Trulli.
The last time before then, though, was when 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve famously spearheaded a point-less debut season for new team BAR in 1999.
