New team in 2022 the chance for Bottas to flourish?

The annual F1 Musical Chair game is almost over and the teams are announcing their lineups for the 2022 season. We finally have answers to questions that have been a big topic on websites for several months. For example, we now know that Valtteri Bottas will leave the team after five years of service. The Finn was a last-minute recruit from the Williams team in late 2016 after newly crowned champion Nico Rosberg surprisingly resigned. Bottas has proven to be a huge asset to the Brackley-based team. He rode a shotgun against Sebastian Vettel …

The annual F1 Musical Chair game is almost over and the teams are announcing their lineups for the 2022 season.

We finally have answers to questions that have been a big topic on websites for several months. For example, we now know that Valtteri Bottas will leave the team after five years of service.

The Finn was a last-minute recruit from the Williams team in late 2016 after newly crowned champion Nico Rosberg surprisingly resigned.

Bottas has proven to be a huge asset to the Brackley-based team. He drove shotgun against Sebastian Vettel in 2017 and 2018 and enabled his teammate Lewis Hamilton to win drivers’ titles. He was runner-up by Hamilton in 2019 and 2020 and ensured that the team continued to win the constructors’ championship.

Bottas will move to Alfa Romeo and replace the resigned Kimi Räikkönen, and the Finn is apparently looking forward to his future. It was reported that he knew about Mercedes’ decision before the Belgian Grand Prix and wanted to move to a team where he could become part of the future.

He is reported to have said, “It’s something new, something exciting and it’s going to be a bit of a project for me. There will be hard work no doubt, but I will use all of my expertise to help them improve from this season onwards. “

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff praised Bottas: “Together with Lewis he established a benchmark partnership, and that was a valuable weapon that helped us achieve unprecedented success. He absolutely deserves to stay with the team, and when the time comes, he will leave us as part of the Mercedes family with great benevolence from every single team member. “

It’s a strange way of announcing the departure of his number two driver and it almost sounds like Bottas has the option to stay with the Brackley team.

Perhaps the Alfa Romeo deal will allow him to show his true skills, as he did at Monza last weekend, without the “requirement” to switch repeatedly.

It was interesting to read George Russell’s comments on joining Mercedes in 2022. In an interview shortly before the Italian Grand Prix, he said: “Definitely at eye level – that became very clear to me.

“I think Mercedes is always respectful in this regard, in order to give both drivers the best possible opportunities. Of course I believe in myself and have high ambitions, but I also know how difficult it will be. “

There is no doubt that Russell is an extremely talented driver and deserves this promotion, but “level conditions” can be an issue if you read Wolff testimony during an interview with Sky Sports.

The Austrian is reported to have said: “He has proven that he deserves a place in a top car, and now we have to adjust him properly to the Mercedes situation. The pressure is much greater. “

Wolff continues: “He will have an incredible team-mate with the biggest records. It is important that we condition and calibrate it properly. We have seen situations in the past where they have failed. “

The incidents between Hamilton and his teammate Nico Rosberg between 2014 and 2016 have to be kept in mind and a repetition would not be desirable. Hence the words “conditioning” and “calibrating”, which I would normally not associate with equality in a team.

Russell’s move cleared the way for a young driver who still has a lot of talent and deserves the opportunity to prove it. William F1 opened the door to Red Bull contract partner Alex Albon, albeit not without difficulties.

It was the Grove team and Alfa Romeo who showed interest in Albon, but the Anglo-Thai driver preferred Williams. By the weekend of the Dutch Grand Prix everything looked like Wolff said he would have no problem with Albon driving for Williams next season as long as he was “free” from his Red Bull contract.

It seems that we have reached a situation where engine suppliers have an impact on their customers’ driver choice, a situation that Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto thinks is wrong. Binotto is quoted as saying: “I believe that everything that happens between a team and a driver takes place between the team and the driver.

“As a manufacturer, we shouldn’t have any influence on it – that would be wrong.” He continued: “If a driver has the opportunity to drive, he should simply have the opportunity to drive wherever it comes from. If the team is happy to assign him a seat, they need to give him a seat. That’s it.”

Albon got the Williams headquarters with a contract that prevents any possibility of divulging confidential data about the Mercedes engine, especially to Red Bull.

Fair enough, I suppose, but I wonder if Bottas had to sign a similar contract when he signed with Alfa Romeo, which after all uses an aggregate from a competing supplier?