Alfa Romeo made official this Monday the signing of Bottas in a “multi-year contract” without specifying the duration of the contract. The 32-year-old, with nine F1 victories, will replace his compatriot, Kimi Raikkonen, from 2022. “A new chapter in my career begins,” he says. The next step, which Mercedes announces in the next few hours, or days, the arrival of George Russell to his team as a teammate of Lewis Hamilton. In any case, it is already an open secret.
Bottas leaves Mercedes after five seasons that have served him to celebrate two runner-ups, in 2019 and 2020, and climb the podium 63 times. It is not yet defined who will be his partner because Giovinazzi’s future at the Sauber house is not assured. Meanwhile, there is expectation for the Brackley team to confirm that the seven-time world champion will have a new garage neighbor of the same nationality and with a lot of projection.
In Zandvoort, meetings between all sides were constant. Fréd Vasseur, head of Sauber, visited Mercedes’ hospitality several times and even met Russell. Jost Capito, Williams director, was another of the key figures in the various negotiations, but his dinner with Raikkonen a few hours before the Finn tested positive for COVID-19 forced him to isolate himself and miss the last two days of the grand prize. Williams has a free seat (Latifi will renew) and there are no financial urgencies, they do not need to resort to a paid pilot. Red Bull wanted to place Albon there, but Toto Wolff has stepped in to try to place Nyck de Vries, the Formula E champion.