Valtteri Bottas is set to lose his Formula One seat for the 2025 season after a difficult campaign with Kick Sauber, but the Finn is hoping to return to Mercedes in a new role

Lewis Hamilton’s comments on former Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas speak volumes after Kick Sauber axed the Finnish driver for the 2025 season.

The team announced on Wednesday that Bottas and his team-mate Zhou Guanyu will both lose their seats at the end of this year, with F2 championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto joining Sauber on a multi-year deal alongside veteran driver Nico Hulkenberg. Bottas, 35, and Zhou, 25, have been team-mates for the past three years but are the only duo on the paddock yet to score a point this season after 21 race weekends.

Reports claim Bottas is eyeing a sensational Mercedes comeback, where he experienced the greatest triumphs of his career as Hamilton’s team-mate, winning 10 Grands Prix and coming second to the Brit twice in the Drivers’ Championship.

His unconfirmed new role would be as a reserve driver, given that the Brackley-based team have already announced George Russell and rookie Kimi Antonelli, who will take over from Hamilton, as their own driver line-up.

But Hamilton’s previous comments about Bottas being his “best ever team-mate” demonstrate that he would be a great addition to the Silver Arrows nonetheless, in terms of both his driving prowess and qualities as a person. Hamilton and Bottas were Mercedes team-mates for five seasons between 2017 and 2021, guiding the team to five constructors titles after the Finn joined from Williams as a replacement for the retiring Nico Rosberg.

The seven-time world champion said when Mercedes announced his departure in 2021: “He has been the best team-mate I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Your speed and resilience has been impressive but where you truly stand out to me is the human being you are.”

He later revealed in 2023 that the pair remained good friends, saying: “Valtteri was just such a great team-mate and colleague, and when I talk about team-mate, I think, not enough people really think about it, but there is like a conflict of interest here in our sport.

“We’ve got two championships. A team championship, which we are hired to do, and a drivers’ championship. So, our job is to score the most points individually or collectively for the team, but ultimately you want to beat your team-mate, so there is always this internal rivalry.

“There is always this delicate path to walk down, and it’s very easy to be on the wrong side, and you fall out. Valtteri and I never fell out. We always just spoke on things. He was very much just like he’s got to do a better job, or I’ve got to do a better job, if one of us beat each other.”

Bottas has lost his Sauber seat for 2025 ( Image: (Image: Getty))

He continued: “And we worked together to try and push the team together. We had amazing years together where he supported me, and I supported him. And we still support each other today, and we travel together to races, quite often, to and from races throughout the year, so that is pretty cool.”

Bottas’ potential return to the Silver Arrows gathered momentum after the team reacted to a fan’s caption of “I miss him and it’s just a sports player”, with a photo of the Finn on X. Sauber chief Mattia Binotto, who will head the team as the rebranded Audi in 2026, shed light on the so-called “conditions” that were not met during his negotiations, revealing the length of contract proved a point of contention between Audi and Bottas as the team were only willing to offer him a one-year deal.

Bottas said on his Sauber exit: “These past years with the team have been an incredible journey, full of growth, challenges, and unforgettable moments. I’m grateful for the joint experiences as well as the trust and support I’ve felt every step of the way. Though it’s time to move on, I’ll always carry a piece of this team with me, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for us both.”