DECEMBER 26, 2024

Why Bottas feels betrayed ny Audi

Valtteri Bottas has never been known for venting his anger or settling problems in public, the former Sauber driver being a typical Finn, who keeps himself to himself, even if his wicked sense of humor has progressively come to the surface since he left Mercedes and felt free to express himself in his own, unique, way.

However, with the conclusion of his three years with Sauber and the certainty he won’t be at on the grid in next year’s Australian Grand Prix, Bottas decided it was time to settle a couple of scores. The Finn wanted explain why, being the best experienced driver on the grid, after Williams opted to take Carlos Sainz to partner Alex Albon in the next couple of years, he ended up without a seat, with newcomers Antonelli, Doohan, Bortoletto and Bearman – and very likely Hadjar - all getting permanent drives in 2025.

One of Bottas’ statements that made the headlines was his admission that, “signing with Sauber three years ago was a mistake.” A statement that upset the fans of the Swiss team, but that makes complete sense when you get the Finn’s explanation for it. After all, when he left Mercedes at the end of 2021, he accepted the contract offered by his old GP3 boss Frédéric Vasseur and had full confidence the Frenchman was the right man to bring Sauber back to the front of the midfield.

That much he explained when he pointed out that, “Fred was a big part of me signing with the team, as I used to work with him before. There was a clear plan and target for the three years I signed for and how to get there, but those plans went into the bin when he left.” As the Frenchman’s deal to join Ferrari came very late in December of 2022, Bottas admitted that, “I did have an option that if Fred goes, I can go, but by then it was too late to find another seat.”

Nevertheless, Bottas doesn’t blame his former boss for moving to Ferrari, “because, as a Team Principal or a driver, if you get the chance to go to Ferrari, everyone is going to take it and Fred did what was right for him – and is showing what he can do with a top team too.”

What really upset Bottas, though, was that he was given false promised by Andreas Seidl, first, and Mattia Binotto, later, as he explained: “Once Audi confirmed they're joining, I was always told that I'd be the pillar for the project, and that didn't happen.” The Finn had previously explained that, “until the end of April, Andreas was in contact with me, assuring me that I would be getting a long term contract with Audi but from the moment he signed Hulkenberg – and I was only told Nico was coming about 30 minutes before the announcement… - he suddenly almost stopped all contact.”

Then, with Seidl fired and Binotto replacing the German, “we reopened negotiations, as Sainz had opted to go to Williams, and, again, I was told he wanted me but the Board of Directors needed to be convinced they shouldn’t put a young driver in the car for 2025 and 2026, as they needed as much experience as they could possibly get to make quick progress. But we all know how that ended too…”

That’s why the Finn concluded that, “knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have signed with Sauber back then, but no one could guess Fred was going to leave 12 months later and that his enire vision for transforming the team would have gone straight into the bin…”