“No burned bridges,” Valtteri Bottas breaks silence on a potential move back to Mercedes after Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 exit

Valtteri Bottas was Lewis Hamilton's teammate at Mercedes between 2017-2021.

“No burned bridges,” Valtteri Bottas breaks silence on a potential move back to Mercedes after Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 exit

Valtteri Bottas and Lewis hamilton (Via: Imago)

The soon-to-be Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton has shot the whole driver market into disarray. A coveted seat at Mercedes has opened up for 2025 and several names have already been put into the hat. Valtteri Bottas is also up for playing a part in the silly season.

Before Valtteri Bottas’s move away from Mercedes at the end of the 2021 season, he enjoyed immense success with Lewis Hamilton as his teammate. Now that the latter is going to part ways at the end of the upcoming season, Valtteri Bottas has indicated that he will be open to making a sensational return to Brackley.

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While talking about the same in detail, he said, as reported by Motorsport:

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As far as I know, no burned bridges. It's no lie, I was in Brackley the day before actually. And if I would go back, yeah… Well, obviously, my priority and biggest commitment is the Audi project, which is my target.

The 34-year-old has made it quite clear that he will be more than willing to go back to the Mercedes F1 team. However, he has also admitted that for the time being, one of his main targets is to be a part of the Sauber/Audi project. The German giants will take majority control of the current Stake F1 team from 2026 onwards.

Valtteri Bottas won five consecutive Constructors titles during his 5-year run at Mercedes

While Valtteri Bottas has somewhat talked up the prospect of re-joining the Mercedes oufit, he played a crucial role alongside Hamilton from 2017-2021. Had Bottas not done his bit, the Brackley-based team would not have been able to win five Constructors Championships during that period. Bottas managed to win 10 Grand Prix with them.

Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas
Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas (Via: Imago)

The Finn was never really able to match the speed and precision of the former seven-time world champion during his time at Mercedes. However, despite this fact, Bottas was able to hold his ground and this was one of the main reasons why the Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff showed his faith in him for five years.

Wolff understands that Bottas is reliable and can put in stellar outings every now and then. If the latter is able to do well during the upcoming 2024 F1 season, then there will be a chance of Bottas re-joining Mercedes from 2025 onwards.

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