Bottas returns to Mercedes as F1 reserve driver

Valtteri Bottas has been signed by Mercedes to be its reserve driver for the 2025 Formula 1 season, after he missed out on keeping 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 team ahead of 2022 as team boss Toto Wolff opted to promote long-time Mercedes junior George Russell from Williams.

Russell will lead Mercedes in 2025 alongside another of the team’s junior drivers,Andrea Kimi Antonelli, with Hamilton heading to Ferrari in place of Carlos Sainz.

Speaking as the news of his Mercedes deal – key to which was how he maintained good relations with Wolff even after leaving – was made official, Bottas said: “I’m happy to finally answer the question I’ve posed over the past month.

“Returning home to the Mercedes family as third driver for 2025 is what’s next and I couldn’t be more pleased. I want to thank Toto, the team at Brackley, and everyone at the three-pointed star for welcoming me back with open arms.

“Despite the challenges of the past few years, I know that I’ve still got so much more to contribute to F1.

“Since I was a five-year-old kid growing up in Nastola, Finland, my focus has been on achieving success in the top tier of motorsport. I’ve been fortunate to have enjoyed many incredible moments in my 12 years of racing in F1 so far.

“As I return to the place where so many of those moments were achieved, I’m looking forward to using all the knowledge I’ve gained to help the team to perform and progress towards our goal of fighting for world championships.”

Former Mercedes reserve driver and ex-F1 racer Mick Schumacher will leave the team as 2024 ends.

After being dropped by Mercedes, Bottas joined Sauber for a three-year stint, with the team known as Alfa Romeo from 2022-23.

Things began promisingly when he was a regular points scorer and with Audi deciding to buy into the organisation in 2022 ahead of a 2026 rebranding, but Bottas came to view heading to Sauber as a “mistake”.

He missed out on staying with the team in 2025 when it first signed Nico Hulkenberg from Haas and then, after main target Sainz decided to join Williams instead due to Sauber’s major downturn in results this year, it chose to pick 2024 Formula 2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto to complete its line-up.

Bottas also said that former Sauber team boss Fred Vasseur leaving to run Ferrari at the end of his first year with the Swiss team was, he feels, “a big part” in why things had not worked out.

“There was a clear plan for targets for the three years and also how to get there [with Vasseur at the helm],” Bottas said. “But those plans and targets went into the bin when he left.”