“It was not [an] easy decision”– Valtteri Bottas reveals why he chose Alfa Romeo over Williams after Mercedes exit

Tanish Chachra | 09/01/2022
"It was not [an] easy decision"– Valtteri Bottas reveals why he chose Alfa Romeo over Williams after Mercedes exit

Valtteri Bottas is already in Alfa Romeo’s camp for the 2022 season, but Williams also had an offer, so why didn’t he join them?

In the middle of the 2021 season, Mercedes decided to drop the services of Valtteri Bottas after five years of a tie-up. The purpose was to promote their drivers’ development programme product, George Russell.

A day before Russell announced joining Mercedes for 2022, Bottas to Alfa Romeo was already confirmed. But at that time, even Williams was interested in a swap between the drivers, so why Bottas didn’t go there and choose the Swiss team?

“It was not [an] easy decision,” Bottas explained. “I tried to take as much information as I could from both sides, and at the same time, listen to my gut feeling. Just based on the decision, on information that I had.

“[It was] not easy. I really feel like Williams is on the upside now. I think they have a good future. But somehow I had a feeling that Alfa was the right thing for me.”

Also read: Valtteri Bottas believes on his best days he can be unbeatable but those days are too rare

Valtteri Bottas no more wanted to compete on Mercedes engine

Bottas, in most years of his career, has run a Mercedes powered car. But Alfa Romeo runs on Ferrari, so Bottas saw an opportunity to try something new.

“It was kind of nice to go to non-Mercedes power,” he said. “Not to have the link [to Mercedes]. [It’s] completely new, something completely different for me.”

Bottas will be paired with the rookie Guanyu Zhou, whose inclusion in controversy has been massively controversial. But Alfa Romeo from hereon views progress and develop their trajectory with the new 2022 regulations.

Alfa Romeo team principal Frederic Vasseur has already claimed that his team will be on the budget cap spending capacity. Thus, they expect to compete with the other teams in 2022.

Also read: Valtteri Bottas feels that the 2022 cars are going to feel the same despite regulation changes

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Alfa Romeo Mercedes Valtteri Bottas

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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