Mercedes have officially confirmed that Valtteri Bottas will be Lewis Hamilton’s partner in the 2017 Formula 1 season replacing Nico Rosberg who took his world champion trophy and went home.
Bottas was supposed to remain at Williams and mentor incoming 18 year old driver Lance Stroll this season, whose Daddy dropped 80 million dollars in Sir Frank William’s hat to ensure his son got a seat in F1. (That’s where I went wrong on my road to F1.)
The 80 big ones depended upon the lad being partnered by an experienced driver, and Felipe Massa who had retired, was talked into coming back and doing another one year. His bank manager is all smiles.
The Williams driver was amongst a host of big names linked with the drive for Mercedes, but he and Pascal Wehrlein were always the favorites for the seat. Wehrlein is a contracted Mercedes Junior driver, but Bottas’ manager was Mercedes race team boss Toto Wolff. Surprise, surprise, Bottas got the nod!
Wehrlein confirmed he is going to race for Sauber, ending all the speculation as it was then only a matter of time for when Bottas would be confirmed.
