“I wanted to cut all ties with Mercedes”: Valtteri Bottas reveals the reason why chose to join Alfa Romeo instead of Williams for 2022

Valtteri Bottas says he made the decision to join Alfa Romeo for 2022 because he wanted a completely new environment to work in. 

Earlier this year, Mercedes announced that Bottas would be leaving them at the end of the season. The Brackley based team chose to replace him with 23 year old George Russell.  The young British driver has been a part of Mercedes’ future F1 plans for quite some time now.

Bottas on the other hand announced that he would be joining Alfa Romeo Racing on a multi year deal, 2022 onwards. The Finnish driver was also heavily linked with a return to former team Williams but he chose to sign for the Swiss team instead.

The 32 year started his F1 career with the team from Oxfordshire. He spent 4 seasons with them from 2013-2016 and stood on the podium 9 times. Valtteri left them for Mercedes in 2017 and has been with the Silver Arrows ever since.

Alfa Romeo feels like the right thing for me, says Valtteri Bottas

In the recent episode of ‘Beyond the Grid’ podcast, Bottas spoke about why he chose to join Alfa Romeo and not Williams.

“Williams is in the upside now. But I had a feeling Alfa was the right thing for me. Also, it was kind of nice to go to Non-Mercedes power, not to have a link. Completely new.” he said.

The 10 time race winner has been racing in a Mercedes powered car since 2016. He felt that it was the right time to move on. Williams have been showing signs of progress throughout this year but the same cannot be said for Alfa Romeo. The Hinwil based team are currently 9th in the standings with just 11 points to its name.

In spite of that, Bottas’ desperate need to move away from Mercedes in the sport made him choose Alfa Romeo racing over Williams.

Also read: “Valtteri Bottas is not at the same level as Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen”: Mercedes boss shares his thoughts on his departing driver