Valtteri Bottas joins Alfa Romeo for the 2022 season

The movement of the Finn is made official, who replaces Raikkonen next year

After months of speculation, the 32-year-old Valtteri Bottas, with nine victories in F1, leaves Mercedes permanently after five seasons and replaces his compatriot, Kimi Raikkonen, from 2022 in the Alfa Romeo Sauber team. The Finn spoke about the issue on his Instagram account

"It’s new and exciting project for me. To get to the top together - I really can’t wait. I will give all my expertise and speed I can for the bright future of this iconic team and brand with impressive history in motorsports. I would like to thank @mercedesamgf1 for the 5 years together. We have achieved quite some things, that I will never forget. I have learned a lot and you have made me stronger. I’m wishing you all the best for the future. And hey, we have still this season to Win!"

Frederic Vasseur, boss of Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN, spoke of the contract with the finn on the team page:

"It is a pleasure to welcome Valtteri to the team and we are looking forward to our journey together. With him, we bring to Hinwil a strong team player with experience at the sharp end of the grid. Valtteri has been an integral part of a team that rewrote the history books and he has four constructors’ world titles to his name: he is the right driver to help Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN make a step forward towards the front of the grid."

Currently, the name of Lewis Hamilton's partner is being awaited for the following season, the preferred one for the seat is George Russell, who raced in Mercedes in the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, when Lewis Hamilton did not participate for testing positive for Covid-19