Bottas confident he will “most likely” stay in F1 next season · RaceFans

Valtteri Bottas says he will “most likely” be in Formula 1 next season despite not having announced a deal to remain on the grid beyond this year.

There are only two vacancies on the 2025 grid: one at Bottas’ Sauber team, the other at Red Bull’s second team RB, which is expected to go to either Daniel Ricciardo or Liam Lawson.

Sauber has already announced Nico Hulkenberg will join them next season, one year before their formal transition into the Audi factory team from 2026. Should Bottas or younger team mate Zhou Guanyu not be signed by the team for next season, Sauber will have an all-new driver line up for 2025.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, said he is not spending a lot of time considering what options are available to him if he fails to be retained by Sauber next year.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to think about that too much now,” Bottas told the official F1 channel. “I think, for me, it’s very clear where I want to be and where I most likely will be, which is in Formula 1.”

However he is committed to racing somewhere next year. “If not Formula 1, I will definitely race. I’m a racer and I’ve been racing all my life and I couldn’t just quit racing.

“Plan B would be IndyCar – try and win the championship in ‘X amount’ of years. But, I don’t think that’s yet.”

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Bottas says he is in regular conversation with Audi’s F1 CEO Mattia Binotto about the team’s future plans and admitted that negotiating a potential contract extension takes some focus away from his race weekend.

“Just the race weekend alone is quite a lot of load on you – mentally and physically,” he said. “And yes, there’s always the contract situation, which is an extra stress, let’s say.

“But things are progressing. We’re still almost in daily contact with Mattia, figuring out what each party wants. That’s about it. I’m always positive, but now again, it’s time to focus on the weekend rather than the contract.”