'Bottas renews F1 contract with Mercedes'

It has not yet been confirmed, but the Italian branch of Motorsport.com wrote about the rumour that Valtteri Bottas will extend his contract with the Mercedes championship team. The Finn will come out for the silver arrows in 2021. With this, Mercedes wants to focus on stability within the ranks.

Motorsport.com reports that on the basis of its own research it can be stated that a contract extension of Bottas at Mercedes is almost complete. With this development George Russell is to be left out for next year. The young F1 driver is quietly waiting at Williams for his chance to join a big team.

Motorsport: "According to information gathered last weekend in Spielberg it appears that Bottas is being offered his fourth consecutive contract by Mercedes. With that the Finn will be in the championship for the team in 2021".

Bottle bag extension far from predictable

Motorsport continues: "It was not the obvious choice at all that the team would choose Bottas now. Rather, it seemed that the team would focus more on Mercedes-junior George Russell. This change in approach would be the result of a complex situation in which several factors play a role".

One of the reasons would also be the return of Fernando Alonso. As a result, there was no free spot at Renault and Bottas would no longer have a spot in F1. In the end Russell would have to wait until at least 2022.

The Finn is currently in the lead in the championship, so the confidence Mercedes has in him will certainly come to him. After a disappointing year in 2018 Bottas already proved to be very resilient in 2019. At the start of the season the Mercedes driver managed to keep up with (then) five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.