{"id":38950,"date":"2024-12-19T21:26:54","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T18:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=38950"},"modified":"2024-12-19T21:26:54","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T18:26:54","slug":"bottas-returns-to-mercedes-as-reserve-driver-after-leaving-sauber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/19\/bottas-returns-to-mercedes-as-reserve-driver-after-leaving-sauber\/","title":{"rendered":"Bottas Returns to Mercedes as Reserve Driver After Leaving Sauber"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"m#msg-a:r-2820220572499083346-content\" class=\"mail-message-content collapsible zoom-normal mail-show-images \">\n<div class=\"clear\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">Mercedes, a competitor in the Formula 1 World Championship, announced on Thursday that Valtteri Bottas will return to the team as a reserve driver for the 2025 season, following his departure from Sauber at the end of last season.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The 35-year-old Finn spent five seasons with Mercedes from 2017 to 2021, partnering with Lewis Hamilton before moving to Alfa Romeo, now Sauber.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Bottas said in a statement:<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cI\u2019m thrilled to finally answer the question I\u2019ve been asked over the past month. Returning to the Mercedes family as the third driver for 2025 is something I\u2019m looking forward to, and I couldn\u2019t be happier.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He added:<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cI want to thank [team principal] Toto [Wolff], the team at Brackley, and everyone for welcoming me with open arms.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Mercedes will field George Russell and rookie Italian Kimi Antonelli (18 years old), who will make his Formula 1 debut, while Hamilton moves to Ferrari.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">During his time with Mercedes, Bottas achieved 10 Grand Prix victories and 58 podium finishes.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Wolff said:<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cValtteri\u2019s impact and contribution during his five years with us as a primary driver were immense.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He explained:<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cIn addition to his many Grand Prix wins, he played a vital role in five (out of eight) Constructors\u2019 Championship titles the team won.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Sauber announced last month that both Bottas and Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu would leave the team at the end of the season.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The Sauber team, which will become Audi\u2019s works team in 2026, has signed Nico H\u00fclkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto as replacements.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mercedes, a competitor in the Formula 1 World Championship, announced on Thursday that Valtteri Bottas will return to the team as a reserve driver for the 2025 season, following his departure from Sauber at the end of last season. The 35-year-old Finn spent five seasons with Mercedes from 2017 to 2021, partnering with Lewis Hamilton &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38951,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38950\/revisions\/38951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}