'Unrest' over Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes, 2022 seat in doubt: report

There are doubts over whether or not Valtteri Bottas will still be a Mercedes driver for the 2022 Formula 1 season. Bottas’ start to the 2021 season has led to renewed speculation over his future. Teammate Lewis Hamilton has outpaced him and he is yet to register a single race win thus far. He took pole position in the Portuguese GP but was outperformed by both Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Now, a report in a British newspaper says there is ‘unrest’ over his recent performances.

“There is some unrest at the factory about Valtteri. He is not up to it, which was made clearer by the job we saw (George) Russell do in Bahrain,” a Mercedes engineer anonymously told Daily Mail.

The obvious choice to replace him would indeed be Russell. The Williams driver is a Mercedes academy driver and proved his worth in the Sakhir GP last year.

Filling in for Hamilton in the race, he finished ninth but led the race at one point, overtaking Bottas in admirable fashion. He was on course for a maiden win but a botched pit stop and a tyre puncture undid him.

Mixed messages on Valtteri Bottas

That being said, it is worth noting that Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has publicly backed Bottas. However, during the Portuguese GP, Wolff was heard on team radio egging the Finn on.

It was noteworthy because the Austrian never comes on team radio unless to congratulate the drivers. This led to speculation that perhaps he was unhappy with Bottas’ driving.

However, Wolff made it clear that – publicly at least – the Finn still has his backing.

“He’s put it on pole, and had a very solid race, he led (at Portugal). It’s clear when you are in the front and just kicking a hole in the air, and the car behind you has DRS, that’s very difficult,” Wolff said.

“At that moment, Lewis opened up a bit of a gap, and was gone. But he controlled Max well. We lost the undercut, that was unfortunate, and then we let him down with the engine, that went into a safety mode.

“So all in all, I think like many times, it could have worked for Valtteri Bottass. We were pushing hard and continue to support him, and next time we’ll see what he’s capable of doing in Barcelona.”