Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has indicated the team needs certain assurances to be in place before it can make public its decision between George Russell and Valtteri Bottas for the vacant 2022 seat.
The summer break was earmarked as a likely window for the Russell/Bottas decision to be made, but both were coy when asked about their futures in the Belgian GP pre-event press conference on Thursday.
While Russell has indicated there isn’t likely to be an announcement before the Italian GP at the earliest, his and Bottas’ comments did little to dispel the increasingly widespread interpretation that Mercedes’ mind is already made up.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 the following day, Wolff maintained that a decision was still to come but dropped a strong hint that the priority was now to ensure that the driver that misses out has their future sorted at the time of the announcement.
“I think you want to do it sooner rather than later because both drivers that are in the run for this cockpit, they need to know and for us it’s always important, whatever step, we take we need to know what would happen to George and Valtteri if we decide for one of them, and that is something I am considering all the time,” he said.
“We are not going take a decision unilaterally without knowing where the direction goes for the other one.”
Though Wolff’s proclamation could theoretically mean alternate avenues are being explored for Russell, it appears considerably more likely that Mercedes is waiting for Bottas to agree terms on a deal with another team – speculated as being Alfa Romeo – so that his F1 future is sorted when it makes the announcement.
Bottas is in his fifth season with Mercedes and has played a part in an uninterrupted streak of constructors’ championship successes, but his performance level has been particularly inconsistent in 2021.
Asked by Sky whether Bottas, given his record of just one win in the last 27 races, could really be the driver to take Mercedes into the future given rival teams were betting big on young talent, Wolff defended the Finn as having contributed greatly to team harmony, and as having his performance levels misrepresented by the fact he “seems to have the bad luck glued to his steering wheel”.
However, he also said: “A generation will change and every other of the top teams has one of those highly promising kids. So there is definitely an argument that we also need to look to the future going forward.”
Lewis Hamilton, contracted by Mercedes for the next two years, has repeatedly spoken out in support of Bottas, and did so again on Thursday, albeit making it clear that it wasn’t his decision to make and that he’d accept whichever decision comes.
Wolff said that Hamilton was emphatically “a part of the discussions” when it came to the other 2022 seat, describing the seven-time champion as “a very important part of the team. He’s really not a driver for – you know, drivers are normally contractors, they come and then maybe they go for another opportunity, and Lewis has been with us [for a long time], I think we are in our ninth year together”.
“Him and I are brainstorming what’s best for the team,” Wolff said for Hamilton.
“He’s taking the driver cap off really – because when he has the driver cap on, we pretty much know both what is good for him – but he’s also taking the team’s view and we have been discussing all throughout the summer and we have the same opinion.”
