Valtteri Bottas takes a dig at Mercedes, claims he feels ‘100% himself’ at Alfa Romeo as does not ‘need to play any role’
Valtteri Bottas claims he no longer needs to play a role, hinting at his familiar routines at Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton's 'second man'.
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Valtteri Bottas (via Imago)
The Finn driver Valtteri Bottas has won only 6 points this season for Alfa Romeo, quite in contrast with his years at Mercedes where he partnered the seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton. While at Mercedes, Bottas was often seen on the podium, amassing huge number of points–but the toll it took for working at a ‘big team’ was too much. Thus, Valtteri Bottas has now claimed that he is happy to be at Alfa Romeo as he gets to be himself.
“They let me play around a bit bit more, and they respect that if that’s what I want to do, and if it’s good for me, then go on”, said Bottas referring to his off-track shenanigans while speaking to Speedcafe. These include competing in a cycling event in Colorado dressed as ‘The Simpsons’ character Duffman and posting a picture of himself swimming naked. The Alfa Romeo driver compared being at Mercedes to being at a huge company, “Some [big] companies might have certain guidelines on how to look, and how to behave.”.
Valtteri Bottas seems to refer to how caged he felt at Mercedes, often seen playing a second fiddle to Lewis Hamilton. The Finnish driver was also asked to forfeit his victories, to let his teammate win. The idea of Bottas being able to give his 100% and have fun doing it is a total win for us fans.
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Alfa Romeo and Sauber’s unexplored future in Formula 1
As Sauber and Alfa Romeo are set to go two separate ways at the end of 2023, they both plot schemes to stay amidst the F1 paddock long into the future. With Audi slated to line-up with Sauber in 2026, here’s what we think will happen in the following two years.
Alfa Romeo are reported to seek a partnership with Haas for the 2024 season. No new revelations have been made on this front yet. Meanwhile Sauber plans to run as an independent team for the next two season with Audi coming to their aid before taking over the team name.
It will be interesting to see how the paddock will look for the next 3 years and how Sauber and Alfa, as two separate entities, compete against each other.
The current Alfa Romeo team, owned by Sauber, are yet to disclose their drivers for the coming season. In some cases, there are hopes that Mick Schumacher might find an opportunity to make a Formula 1 comeback next year with the Swiss team, but nothing has been conclusively announced yet.
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Himanshu Chavan
(232 Articles Published)