Bottas sees sense in sticking around for Audi arrival

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Valtteri Bottas says he's seeing a lot of sense in the idea of sticking around for the arrival of Audi on the grid in 2026.

Audi will take over Sauber Motorsport to create a new manufacturer works team when new engine regulations come into effect.

Sauber currently runs the Alfa Romeo Racing squad, but that deal expires at the end of the current season leaving it running under its original name during the interim period.

Bottas joined Alfa Romeo at the start of 2022 after being let go from his long-term role at Mercedes alongside Lewis Hamilton, but after a promising start it's been a struggle for Bottas and team mate Zhou Guanyu.

Bottas is on a 'two plus one' year contract which would keep him with the team into 2024. But the idea of staying long enough to play a key role in Audi's arrival on the grid is appealing to the Finn more and more as the weeks go on.

Previously he's been reluctant to look too far ahead or make long-term commitments, but that seems to be changing as deadlines draw closer.

Read also: Alfa 'pushing' - not waiting for Audi takeover

"The more I think about it, yes," he replied to recent media questions about staying on until 2026. "For me, it's an interesting era for the team.

“When you are focused on the here and now, you don’t want to sometimes think too far ahead," he acknowledged. "But then if I really think about it, and the long term plan, then it would make sense.

"For me it would be really motivating to be part of it," he added. "Let's see; it's still a while away. I'm sure eventually we will have some discussions, but not yet.”

Alfa Romeo is currently ninth in the constructors championship having fallen behind Williams and ALphaTauri. The squad has scored points in only four races this season with Bottas in the top ten only twice in Bahrain and Canada.

There has been speculation that the decline in performance has been to to with a general 'wining down' ahead of the end of the naming rights deal with Alfa Romeo.

“Looking from the outside it could look that way," Bottas admitted. "That people are just waiting for Audi to come and so on. But it's not the case."

Frederic Vasseur stood down as team principal at the end of 2022 to take over at Ferrari, while Andreas Seidl moved across from McLaren to become chief executive officer of Sauber.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.