While there is a lot being written about the future of Valtteri Bottas at the Anglo-German world championship winning Mercedes F1 team, the reality is that he is out of a contract at the end of the season. Increasingly, it seems like Lewis Hamilton is not done with formula 1 - which opens the window for George Russell who has been earmarked as a future world champion. Russell who impressed while replacing Hamilton at the end of last year is also a Mercedes contracted driver currently with the Williams team. The heat is on Bottas to be closer to Hamilton in race pace, if not beat him.
undefinedHello. I'm selling my car in Finland.
— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) May 11, 2021
If you are interested you can bid here: https://t.co/2wThzeeKLf
Will hand you the car personally and we can have some fun with go-karts in Lahti, Finland @ Valtteri Bottas Racepark! pic.twitter.com/EHOMKhvj6S
Now, Bottas has announced the sale of his AMG GT R which could be an innocuous thing. But this will further fuel the fire that something is amiss between the Anglo-German team and the Finnish driver. There is already brewing tension at Mercedes because of the Bottas situation. In the 2021 Sakhir GP, Bottas was overtaken by a green Russell, and was set to win the race but a pit stop mishap and puncture cost him a race victory. There were also murmurs that Lewis Hamilton stopped talking to Russell because of this as he was being used to as bait for the contract negotiations between him and Mercedes.
In the first four races of 2021 Season, Valtteri Bottas has been clearly behind Lewis Hamilton in terms of race pace.
Photo Credit: AFP
In the first four races, Bottas has been clearly behind the pace, not just Hamilton, but even Verstappen even though Mercedes has won 3 of the four races. In fact, in Imola, Bottas scored nothing because Russell crashed into him. But Russell initially blamed Bottas for the crash. That's added more friction to the situation.
Now as Bottas has no contract after the year, and seemingly Hamilton is set for another couple of years at Mercedes, the Wolff has to decide who stays. Apart from Russell, Mercedes also have Esteban Ocon, who is contracted with Alpine.
If Bottas doesn't win the world title or at minimum beat Verstappen, which he didn't last year, there is a very high possibility that he will be left without a seat at the Brackley based outfit. So, the news of him selling his Mercedes AMG GTR will expectedly add more fuel to the fire.
