Valtteri Bottas hasn’t signed a contract for the 2025 Formula One season yet, but he wants to stay with Stake F1, the team owned by Audi. He also says he’s driving better now than he did at his old team.
Bottas was Lewis Hamilton‘s teammate at Mercedes from 2017 to 2021, where they won the constructors’ title every year. In 2022, George Russell took his place, and Bottas moved to Sauber, known then as Alfa Romeo.
Bottas: ‘I drive better now than I did then at Mercedes’
Since joining Sauber, Bottas earned 49 points in his first season and only 10 in the next one. This low score is mostly because of problems with their current car. Despite this, Bottas thinks he’s performing better now than when he was with Mercedes and hopes to secure a spot for 2025.
“I feel like, yes, especially in qualifyings this year, I haven’t felt any signs of being worse. If anything, you keep getting better with experience. You gain more consistency, more confidence. You can solve different issues in a different way. You can adapt to the car the more time you spend in the sport. I feel actually I’m driving better than what I did at Mercedes, but obviously it’s not that visible,” Bottas said.
He’s currently ranked 22nd in the drivers’ standings and is one of three drivers who haven’t finished in the Top 10 at a Grand Prix this season along with Guanyu Zhou and Logan Sargeant.
Fans might think it’s surprising that despite feeling he’s improved, Bottas’s results don’t show it.
What do you think about Bottas’s chances for a new contract?
