Confirmation Valtteri Bottas will replace Nico Rosberg at Mercedes should be expected soon after reports link Pascal Wehrlein with a move to Sauber.
The German was the ‘last resort’ option for the Constructors’ champions and a deal for him to drive for the Swiss team, a possibility Read Motorsport first broke back in November, must mean Mercedes are certain of signing Bottas, the only other candidate for the second seat.
The Brackley-based team said no announcement would be made before January 3rd, but with speculation Felipe Massa has agreed to return to Williams and now Wehrlein’s plans seemingly set, what is quickly becoming the worst kept secret in F1, should soon be official.
When it does it will mark a decisive victory for Mercedes as they get their number one choice to fill the seat left by the retired world champion. After an initial approach was rebuffed, further talks and a deal, believed to include Paddy Lowe to replace Pat Symonds, seems to have been enough for the Grove-based team.
Bottas is one of the clients of Mercedes commercial chief Toto Wolff and his performances at Williams, particularly in 2014, earmarked the Finn as a future star.
The loss of Lowe is also not as big as may first appear. The former McLaren tech boss has been wanting a fresh challenge and was likely to leave Mercedes regardless of any driver decision.
With plenty of teams interested in his services, it is believed Wolff has used Lowe as leverage to get Williams to agree on releasing Bottas for 2017.
It is also now highly likely James Allison, who had to leave Ferrari last year due to family reasons, will take over Lowe’s role in the Mercedes set-up.
Massa’s decision to delay his retirement cannot be underestimated in Williams agreeing to part with their lead driver. The team were desperate to retain one of their 2016 drivers with the new rules coming this year and also to provide experience alongside 18-year-old Lance Stroll who steps up from F3.
Without the Brazilian’s U-turn, it is likely Williams would have fought even harder to retain Bottas, but, as it is, this is set to be the moment the Finn’s career has been waiting for.
Bottas appeared to have slipped down the lists of a few top teams over the course of this season as other drivers impressed, but his association with Wolff and Mercedes’ links to Williams made him the most accessible of the highly-respected talents on the grid.
A move to Mercedes was always seen as highly likely and now it’s set to happen, it will be interesting to see how he does against one of the absolute best drivers on the grid in Lewis Hamilton.
Will the man who took F1 by storm three years ago turn up at Brackley? Or will he be the guy that Massa kept more than honest over the past two seasons? Up against the three-time world champion, it had better be the former.
