Valtteri Bottas already sees a way back onto the 2026 Formula 1 and says he’s turned down the offer of a full-time IndyCar debut in 2025 for it.
Earlier this month Sauber announced it would be dropping Bottas and team-mate Zhou Guanyu in favour of Formula 2 championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg who it locked down with a three-year deal in April.
That left Bottas without a seat on the 2025 grid despite talks with multiple other teams who ultimately decided to go with another driver.
A return to Mercedes, who he helped to five consecutive constructors’ championships as team-mate to Lewis Hamilton, as its reserve driver has looked increasingly likely with Wolff telling Viaplay that Bottas’s Mercedes return was simply “a matter of time”.
On Thursday in Qatar, it was revealed that Mick Schumacher will leave the Mercedes reserve driver role he’s occupied since losing his Haas seat at the end of 2022.
So is that confirmation that Bottas has a deal to replace him?
“Hmm we are talking. It's going well. Still a bit of work to do. But yeah, we're talking,” Bottas said in Qatar.
Bottas says “the priority for me is still Formula 1” and says he’s not done with it yet.
That’s influenced his 2025 plans and according to Bottas, he’s turned down the offer of a 2025 IndyCar seat.
Where would Bottas fit into IndyCar grid?
Jack Benyon
Valtteri Bottas’s admission that he had a “solid offer” of a full-time IndyCar seat on the table for 2025 is quite the surprise - he’s not been mentioned by the paddock insiders The Race has consulted across silly season.
As it stands today, there are four seats still available.
Dale Coyne ran a string of different drivers and didn’t have any driver do all the races across its two cars last year, so it needs someone to bring a budget and is low on staff for next year.
Juncos Hollinger Racing has been recently boosted by the arrival of Sting Ray Robb who is understood to bring a valuable budget with him, so alongside him here could have been an option for Bottas in place of Romain Grosjean.
But it’s actually expected that Robb’s arrival would be with the addition of ex-GP3 racer Conor Daly alongside, who impressed with the team in the second half of last season.
That leaves the most likely option, Rahal, because it’s the biggest team of the three and Bobby Rahal is very switched on to top drivers in Europe being available, bringing Christian Lundgaard over from F2 and even had Formula E champion Antonio Felix da Costa test a few years back.
But the team is reeling from a lost sponsor and it’s known to be looking for a driver to bring some budget. Devlin De Francesco is expected to take the seat barring any late change of direction.
None of these circumstances are a perfect option or, honestly, something suitable for a multiple grand prix winner.
It’s possible a team that is now filled tapped up Bottas earlier in the year and he turned it down either still waiting for a Sauber offer before that ultimately didn’t come, or by his own admission, that he felt it was too soon to commit to a full-time gig next year without knowing “what is the actual day job” yet.
Of the top teams, only McLaren has signed a new driver for 2025 - Lundgaard - and that deal was done in June. Andretti, Ganassi and Penske have all stayed the same or jettisoned drivers, not added.
And if any of them wanted Bottas now, it’d be as an unchartered entry, meaning it would have to qualify to get on the grid for each race and beat at least two Prema cars, owing to IndyCar introducing a new charter system.
No doubt Bottas would have been a hit in IndyCar, Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson have been impressive since leaving F1 for it and a load of F2 drivers have impressed too.
But few opportunities befitting his ability would have been on offer to him and I’m not surprised he chose a different option/to wait to see how things unfold.
I made the same argument in a column on Logan Sargeant recently. Taking a poor IndyCar seat is a big step backwards and not what a driver leaving F1 needs to rejuvenate their career.
And if it was a big team that offered Bottas a drive, he was right to reject it if his heart isn’t in it or he was undecided on other bigger-picture things.
IndyCar might be a general step down from the prestige in F1 but it’s just as competitive if not more so, and ovals are a totally new discipline to learn. It takes full commitment.
“Jumping into a full IndyCar season after 12 years of F1, I just feel like it comes a bit too quick because there's a lot of hard work, a lot of familiarisation to be done and all these things,” said Bottas.
“I’d rather just take a bit of time, figure out what's next and go from there.”
A more realistic 2025 IndyCar debut option could be a one-off at the Indianapolis 500, a race on Bottas’s bucket list. That would depend of his availability though considering it clashes with the Monaco Grand Prix next year, plus seats are hotly contested and have started to fill up already.
“I don't know yet,” Bottas said when asked if there could be a one-off outing in 2025.
“First of all, it depends if I'm going to be around here, at every grand prix, or not. If yes, then obviously the options are a little bit more limited.
“But, I mean, the Indy 500 has been always on the list. I've been always a fan of V8 Supercars. These kinds of things. At the moment I'm still pretty open.
“Just need to, first I need to decide actually, what is the next move, and then we'll see.”
2026 F1 return hope
Bottas doesn’t want to commit to a full-time racing programme in 2025 because he wants enough of his focus to be on F1 in 2025 to ensure he’s a good candidate in 2026 - particularly now F1 has accepted Cadillac onto the grid, potentially opening another door.
“I think to be around, to hopefully be able to do some testing etc [in 2025], it gives me a chance for '26,” Bottas said.
“Because in this sport you just never know what happens. There is also a new team joining, which means two more seats. That obviously increases the opportunities for '26.”
You’d suspect Cadillac would want at least one experienced driver in its first F1 line-up, so Bottas targeting that drive is far from fantasy.
In fact it’s opened a realistic route back that just wasn’t there before. He was previously going to need a driver on the 2025 grid to properly falter and for that team to take him over continuing this year’s trend of giving a young driver a chance.
But now he could be a team’s first choice again and in fact Bottas has already spoken to Cadillac.
“Yes [but] for sure I'm not the only one,” Bottas said when asked if he’s had a conversation with Cadillac.
“Of course, it's interesting to me and I think it's great for F1. It's a great, great brand, GM is a big backer, so for sure it's an interesting project.”
As Bottas says he’ll be far from the only driver contacting Cadillac this week. You’d suspect he’ll face competition from other experienced drivers, such as outgoing Haas driver Kevin Magnussen already has experience of racing for Cadillac.
“I have driven for the factory before, in IMSA, it was the factory Cadillac that I drove, I know the management, I know the people there, they know me. So... you never know, I guess,” Magnussen said in Qatar.
Rejoining Mercedes and being its stand-in driver of choice - a role that usually extends to being an option for Mercedes customer teams too - and the prospect of some tyre testing will at least give Bottas a chance to impress and remain F1-ready should Cadillac give him the return to the grid he’s desperate for.