According to HS, Valtteri Bottas' new contract is for two years and includes an option year.
Valtteri Bottas is changing teams and believes Alfa Romeo will perform better in the future than it has this season.
For the first time in his career, Valtteri Bottas knows what he will do after next year.
Alfa Romeo announced the 32-year-old Finnish driver's "multi-year" contract on Monday. According to HS, Bottas' contract is for two years, with an option for one year.
"All I can say about the length of the contract is that it covers at least the next two seasons," Bottas told HS by phone from his home in Monaco.
"At least now I know that I don't have to think about the contract for a while and I can concentrate fully on the work itself. And not just on the current season, but I can also focus on the long term development work ahead."
For Bottas, leaving Mercedes initially felt "a bit unusual".
"It was a strange feeling, but as I thought about it, it became clear that this is already my fifth season there. It feels refreshing to get a fresh feel in a completely new environment," Bottas says.
"Another big factor in my decision was that I finally got a deal longer than one year. It motivates me and gives me more confidence in the job, because it's a long-term deal and you don't have to be on the back foot all the time."
Bottas becomes the fourth Finn to join the Swiss team, which has also previously been known as Sauber and BMW.
Jyrki Järvilehto drove for Sauber in 1993 and Mika Salo in 2000. Kimi Räikkönen first drove for Sauber in 2001 and then for Alfa Romeo for three seasons from 2019 to 2021. Apart from Talli, only McLaren has had four Finnish drivers in its history.
Alfa Romeo currently sits second to last in the Manufacturers' World Championship, but next year it has a big chance to improve its position thanks to the new rules.
"It could be that the deck will be reshuffled. At least in theory, the balance of power will change so that all the teams are closer together," Bottas stresses.
When Räikkönen returned to Alfa Romeo for the 2019 season, the decision was heavily influenced by a brief meeting with team principal Frédéric Vasseur, although Räikkönen did not even know him beforehand.
Bottas, on the other hand, knows Vasseur, and this influenced his decision.
"We have a history together from previous years, and I won the GP3 championship with him in 2011," says Bottas.
"When Vasseur goes into a project, he puts his all into it. I have a lot of confidence in him."
Bottas has not yet visited the team's headquarters in Hinwil, Switzerland. For the rest of the season, he is still fully focused on his duties as Mercedes driver.
Bottas admits that apart from Alfa Romeo, his former team Williams was also an option.
"I tried to put all the facts on the table and go where I felt there was more potential for the future," says Bottas.
"I think this was the best option. Of course, the truth will only be known in the future. In the end, I came to this with a pretty clear vision."
Mercedes is expected to announce in the near future that it will promote George Russell, who is part of its driver programme, from Williams to team-mate with Lewis Hamilton.
Russell backed up Hamilton, who was sidelined by a corona infection, last season in Bahrain and performed very well as a team-mate for Bottas. Bottas says he doesn't know if that race weekend will have any impact on Mercedes' decision.
"Of course the team always has long-term plans for its drivers."
"My departure was kind of consensual. We agreed with Toto Wolff that I would change the team and they would take George."
Bottas admits that when he joined Mercedes for 2017 he expected to win the world championship.
"But try it against Lewis Hamilton... Not an easy task. That's what I found out."
"It's been a bit of an up-and-down last few years, but a lot has been learned and a lot of good things have come out of it. I can be proud of the fact that everything has always been in play and nothing has been left to chance. At least I've tried."
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