Valtteri Bottas is fighting for his place at Mercedes, but it is starting to look more and more like the German team is going to choose George Russell. While the Finn was mainly linked to Williams, Bottas appears to have had talks with Alfa Romeo.
Bottas and Russell will have to fight it out for the second seat at Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton has already extended his contract, but the second seat has yet to be filled. Toto Wolff seemed to hint at Russell’s arrival the other day, and there have been more signs that the Brit will be chosen.
This means that Bottas has to find a new place in F1, and because of his ties with Mercedes and his past with the team, a return to Williams was seen as logical. According to information from the usual well-informed Motorsport-total.com Bottas has already held talks with Alfa Romeo.
Talks have reportedly taken place between Bottas’ management and team boss Frederic Vasseur. The team boss of the Italian team will be free to choose his drivers from 2022 onwards, and will no longer be bound by drivers from the Ferrari squad. In addition, Kimi Raikkonen will turn 42 years old in October, and his career seems to be coming to an end.
Vasseur still has all options open, but the arrival of Bottas would of course be a huge boost for the team. With a possible departure of Kimi, the team would lose a lot of experience, and Bottas could partly fill that gap. The Finn is still very fast in qualifying, and therefore a good match for Antonio Giovinazzi.
