Bottas rejoins Mercedes as 2025 F1 reserve driver

Valtteri Bottas has been re-signed by Mercedes to be its reserve 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 for the Silver Arrows squad in a 100-race stint between 2017 and 2021 when he was partnered with Lewis Hamilton.

He was dropped from the staff forward of 2022 as staff 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 staff’s junior drivers, Andrea Kimi Antonelli – with Hamilton heading to Ferrari rather than Carlos Sainz.

Talking because the information of his Mercedes deal broke – key to which was how he maintained good relations with Wolff even after leaving – Bottas stated: “I’m completely satisfied 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 need to thank Toto, the staff 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 bought 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 high tier of motorsport.

“I’ve been lucky to have loved many unbelievable moments in my 12 years of racing in F1 thus far.

“As I return to the place the place so lots of these moments have been achieved, I’m trying ahead to utilizing all of the information I’ve gained to assist the staff to carry out and progress in direction of our objective of preventing for world championships.”

After being dropped by Mercedes, Bottas joined Sauber for a three-year stint, with the staff generally known as Alfa Romeo for the primary two of these seasons.

Issues started promisingly when he was an everyday 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”.

He missed out on staying with the staff in 2025 when it first signed Nico Hulkenberg from Haas after which, after important goal Sainz determined to hitch Williams as an alternative because of Sauber’s main downturn in outcomes this 12 months, it selected 2024 Method 2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto to finish its line-up.

Valtteri Bottas, Stake F1 Staff KICK Sauber C44, is retired to the storage

Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Photographs

“All the things began effectively off within the first 12 months, however since then, it was downhill,” he stated on the 2024 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

“However we simply cannot predict the longer term. That is how it’s. Simply need to ensure that the subsequent transfer I make goes to be an excellent one. Hopefully, there’s higher instances to return.”

Bottas additionally stated that former Sauber staff boss Fred Vasseur leaving to run Ferrari on the finish of his first 12 months with the Swiss staff was, he feels, “a giant half” in why issues had not labored out.

“There was a transparent plan for targets for the three years and likewise methods to get there [with Vasseur at the helm],” Bottas added.

“However these plans and targets went into the bin when he left.”

Former Mercedes reserve driver and ex-F1 racer Mick Schumacher will go away the staff as 2024 ends.