Valtteri Bottas lined up for surprise Mercedes role after F1 2025 return

Mercedes driver George Russell leads at the start of the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix
Toto Wolff has revealed that Valtteri Bottas will act as a “coach” to Andrea Kimi Antonelli as part of his reserve driver duties at Mercedes for the F1 2025 season.
Bottas was left without a seat for F1 2025 after Audi F1, who will rebrand the existing Sauber team next year, opted for an all-new driver lineup for the new season.
Valtteri Bottas set to coach Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes
Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto will race for the Swiss-based team in F1 2025, with Bottas and team-mate Zhou Guanyu both dropped at the end of last season.
Bottas has returned to Mercedes, with whom he claimed 10 F1 victories in a five-year spell between 2017 and 2021, as the team’s reserve driver for the new season with the aim of returning to a race seat for F1 2026.
PlanetF1.com revealed this week that Bottas, who has replaced former Haas racer Mick Schumacher in the backup role, is also likely to be made available to Mercedes customer teams McLaren and Williams as a reserve option.
Will Valtteri Bottas return to an F1 race seat?
👉 F1 2025 driver line-up: Who is confirmed for the 2025 grid?
👉 F1 2026 driver line-up: Who is already confirmed for the 2026 grid?
The Finnish driver will fill a void of experience at Mercedes after Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time World Champion, joined Ferrari, with teenage sensation Antonelli promoted as George Russell’s new team-mate.
Antonelli, who recently passed his driving test, will become one of the youngest drivers in F1 history when he makes his debut aged 18 at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 16.
Wolff has revealed that Bottas will effectively adopt a coaching role upon his return to Mercedes, with the 35-year-old expected to assist Antonelli’s development over the course of the teenager’s debut season.
Per RN365, Wolff said: “Part of the role of Valtteri will be to have a look at Kimi.
“Be there to coach, be there to have an eye on what’s happening on the track. Kimi is going to learn from Valtteri and from George.”
Wolff’s latest comments come after he confirmed that Bottas will no longer be allowed to produce a “nude calendar” at Mercedes, having revealed a lighter side to his personality over recent years.
Yet the team boss confirmed that the veteran will be permitted to keep his “ugly mullet” hairstyle, adding: “We are Mercedes, so maybe the nude calendar is not on anymore.
“We’ve said that, but we need to keep him authentic. If he wants to keep the ugly mullet, then he should.”
More on Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes
Bottas established a rivalry with Russell over the course of his final season at Mercedes in 2021, with the British driver eventually replacing him as Hamilton’s team-mate for 2022.
Despite their history, Russell recently welcomed Bottas’ return to the team and claimed the former Williams driver’s experience will be immensely valuable to Mercedes in F1 2025.
Russell said: “His experience is going to be massive.”
“Having someone with so much simulator and racing knowledge, and who fully knows the team, is going to be great.
“Hearing about his last few years at Sauber with the Ferrari engine could be key too. You always have to keep an open mind as to what others are doing and he has all of that under his belt.
“Obviously years ago we were perceived to not have a strong relationship, but we are both professionals and our relationship has grown.
“We often travel together and see each other at hotels or in the gym.”
It emerged earlier this month that Bottas was so confident of remaining on the grid for F1 2025 that he physically signed a contract to race for Sauber.
However, the team’s signature never came as Sauber opted to sign Bortoleto, the winner of the prestigious F2 (formerly GP2) junior category, confirming the deal after November’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
Speaking ahead of his final race for Sauber, Bottas admitted it was “a big mistake” to have joined the team at the end of his Mercedes career, with the Swiss outfit losing momentum after team principal Fred Vasseur was poached by Ferrari at the end of Bottas’ first season in 2022.
Put to him that joining Sauber was not the best move for his career, Bottas told Finnish outlet Ilta Sanomat: “Absolutely not.
“If I could go back three years, I would have gone somewhere else. Unfortunately, that’s how it is.
“This was a big mistake, but it’s hard to predict these things in advance.
“That first year with Vasseur was a good thing. The team spirit was good and the results were quite good.
“The last two seasons have been a bit of a downhill slide all the time. Of course, that affects my image as a driver. If you can’t show results, people kind of forget your name.
“[The 2024] season has undoubtedly been quite scary. When we set goals with Vasseur in 2022 and how to achieve them, we had a clear plan.
“But after he left, all the goals and plans went to the scrap heap. Since then, it has been significantly more challenging.”
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