Valtteri Bottas has been signed by Mercedes to be its third driver for the 2025 Method 1 season, after he missed out on holding his seat at Sauber.
The Finnish racer scored 10 grand prix wins with the Silver Arrows in a 100-race stint between 2017 and 2021 when he was partnered with Lewis Hamilton.
He was dropped from the workforce forward of 2022 as workforce boss Toto Wolff opted to advertise long-time Mercedes junior George Russell from Williams.
Russell will lead Mercedes in 2025 alongside one other of the workforce’s junior drivers, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, with Hamilton heading to Ferrari rather than Carlos Sainz.
Talking because the information of his Mercedes deal – key to which was how he maintained good relations with Wolff even after leaving – was made official, Bottas stated: “I’m completely happy to lastly reply the query I’ve posed over the previous month.
“Returning dwelling to the Mercedes household as third driver for 2025 is what’s subsequent and I couldn’t be extra happy. I wish to thank Toto, the workforce at Brackley, and everybody on the three-pointed star for welcoming me again with open arms.
“Regardless of the challenges of the previous few years, I do know that I’ve nonetheless acquired a lot extra to contribute to F1.
“Since I used to be a five-year-old child rising up in Nastola, Finland, my focus has been on reaching success within the prime tier of motorsport. I’ve been lucky to have loved many unbelievable moments in my 12 years of racing in F1 to date.
“As I return to the place the place so lots of these moments have been achieved, I’m wanting ahead to utilizing all of the data I’ve gained to assist the workforce to carry out and progress in direction of our objective of combating for world championships.”
Former Mercedes reserve driver and ex-F1 racer Mick Schumacher will go away the workforce as 2024 ends.
Mick Schumacher, Reserve Driver, Mercedes-AMG F1 Crew
Picture by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Photos
After being dropped by Mercedes, Bottas joined Sauber for a three-year stint, with the workforce referred to as Alfa Romeo from 2022-23.
Issues started promisingly when he was a daily factors scorer and with Audi deciding to purchase into the organisation in 2022 forward of a 2026 rebranding, however Bottas got here to view heading to Sauber as a “mistake”.
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He missed out on staying with the workforce in 2025 when it first signed Nico Hulkenberg from Haas after which, after essential goal Sainz determined to hitch Williams as an alternative as a result of Sauber’s main downturn in outcomes this yr, it selected to choose 2024 Method 2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto to finish its line-up.
Bottas additionally stated that former Sauber workforce boss Fred Vasseur leaving to run Ferrari on the finish of his first yr with the Swiss workforce was, he feels, “an enormous half” in why issues had not labored out.
“There was a transparent plan for targets for the three years and in addition tips on how to get there [with Vasseur at the helm],” Bottas stated. “However these plans and targets went into the bin when he left.”
On this article
Alex Kalinauckas
Method 1
Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes
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