Alfa Romeo takes cue from Mercedes: 'Strong pillar'

Valtteri Bottas was under contract at Mercedes for the past five seasons, but is preparing for a challenge at Alfa Romeo this year. Team boss Frédéric Vasseur expects a lot from the Finn's input, as he explained in an interview with Crash.net.

After Nico Rosberg left the German racing stable in 2016 and decided to quit Formula 1 for good, Mercedes went looking for his successor. With Valtteri Bottas, the team found a reliable driver who just couldn't manage to compete with Lewis Hamilton. Four times the Brit won the World Championship next to Bottas, while in 2021 Max Verstappen came out on top.

Mercedes therefore decided to look for a successor for next season and found it with George Russell. It meant that Bottas had to look for a new home. He found that at Alfa Romeo where he gets a completely different role. Whereas Hamilton demanded a lot of attention at Mercedes, in his new team he has to take the lead himself.

"It’s quite natural when you are the teammate of Lewis, you are a little bit in the shadow of him," Vasseur said in the interview. "With us it will be a strong pillar of the performance of the development of the team. I think it was also for him an important step and I’m really convinced that he will achieve in this position."