Valtteri Bottas has confirmed he will not be on the Formula One grid next season. The only seats remaining confirmation are within the Red Bull family as Dr. Marko revealed in Las Vegas he will preside over an end of season pow wow in Milton Keynes to decide Sergio Perez’s fate.
The Finn told assembled media that Red Bull was not an option for him because “I feel like there are some people at Red Bull who don’t really like me for some reason,” he told the assembled media including following the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Bottas has been offered the role of third driver back at Mercedes where he raced for five years between 2017 and 2021. He claimed ten race victories during his stint alongside Lewis Hamilton and helped the team to the historic eight consecutive constructors’ championship in 2021 while Max Verstappen clinched his first world title.
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Lewis Hamilton favoured the team retaining Bottas for 2022, but Toto Wolff called time on his driver’s tenure with the team preferring to promote George Russell from his apprentice role with the Williams squad.
It has been mooted Bottas could be offered an ambassador role with Mercedes which would be a kick in the teeth for Lewis Hamilton who failed to secure that role for himself during his last contract negations with the Brackley based team. Valtteri is also a competent cyclist having competed in world championship events in the sport.
Now the public have offered their opinions on what’s next for the likeable Finn and the sporting suggestions are lower in the pecking order. An amusing instagram video posted by Puma in partnership with Stake F1 Sauber the most popular career option was a farmer with others claiming he looks as though he cold be from the movie industry, as either a director or producer.
Another suggestion was Bottas could take up a country and western career adding to his growing list of talents. Yet Bottas made it clear in Las Vegas he was “thankful” to Mercedes for providing him with a solid option for next year.
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The relatively late decision by Sauber to release Valtteri meant most of the decent drives in the WEC and Indycar were already taken. He now faces the choice of a year traveling the world with Mercedes or time off after his twelve years in Formula One.
Bottas was asked by RacingNews365 at a media event in Las Vegas whether the reserve driver option at Mercedes was attractive to him.
“We’ve been talking for quite a long time, but I want to see all of the options,” Bottas responded. “If I look at it, there are many positive things about it, and being back in the Mercedes family, it is a great team, a great brand.
“It creates lots of opportunities for the future and it is a really solid option for me, and actually, I’m really thankful that they are willing to take me in,” said Valtteri.
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Valtteri to race in Australia next season
He was pushed on how the arrangement would work and whether he wold have to attend all the 24 race weekends, but Bottas appeared unsure at present.
“That is the thing, that if you don’t go to all the races, and something happens [to Russell or Antonelli] and you are not there, you don’t get [to race]. So it is these kinds of things I still need to think about and speak with them and try to figure out what is next,” Valtteri revealed.
The Finn has collected a following amongst F1 fans with his unabashed mullet cut and dry Finnish wit. It may well be he is there for the season opener in Melbourne given his commitment to the Race of Champions a week earlier 500 miles along the coast.
The most recent editions of this annual event have been held on a snow and ice track in the North of Sweden. This year it will be held on a specially laid asphalt circuit inside Sydney’s 83,500-capacity Accor Stadium.
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This will be the second time Valtteri has competed in the Race of Champions forming one half of the Finnish double act alongside F1 world champion Mika Hakkinen in 2023. Next year’s team event will be held on Friday 7th March with the individual competition the following day.
But the Finnish team are not the only big gun names to be announced for the event as Sebastian Vettel will team up with Mick Schumacher for represent team Germany. Schumacher had been hopeful of a seat on the grid with both Alpine and Sauber-Audi, but nothing came of the discussions and his F1 career is surely now over.
Other big names attending the event in Sydney include previous winner and rally legend, Sebastian Loeb, Australian supercars multiple champion Jamie Whincup and rallycross icon Johan Kristoffersson. A British entry has not been confirmed though last time around it included former F1 driver and pundit David Coulthard alongside three time World Series champion, Jamie Chadwick who raced this year in the feeder series for Indycar.
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Big Bottas fan base in Australia
Valtteri is popular in Australia having been adopted an honorary citizen in recent years, His relationship with Tiffany Cromwell, a professional road and gravel cyclist, who was born and grew up in the suburbs of Adelaide, saw him adopted by the Aussie F1 fans before Oscar Piastri came along.
His mullet cut has further endeared him to fans down under and drinking VB beer which is made in Melbourne and with a hilarious promotional video for Uber Rideshare earlier this year, in which he showed fans around his ‘car’ – a Holden Ute pickup – which had a series of unusual Australia-themed add-ons.
Bottas will surely accept the Mercedes offer, although he may pick and choose which events he attends throughout the course of a hectic 24 weekend long season.
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Lewis Hamilton is set to suffer his worst result in eighteen seasons of being a driver in Formula One. His current position of seventh in the drivers table is one lower than his previous lowest finish of sixth back in 2022.
Yet this is but the tip of the iceberg of the Mercedes’ drivers woes given he was once credited as the master of the qualifying single lap. And it is qualifying which is the single source of Lewis’ troubles given across all other metrics he is close to his team mate Russell.
Hamilton has an average grid position of 8.64 which compares to his team mates 5.82 but in there race the form is quite different. There lewis leads George with an average classified finish of 5.65 while George is marginally behind at 5.70… READ MORE
