The Renault works have made Valtteri Bottas an offer to drive for them in 2017. The 26 year old Finn will be out of contract net year with Williams F1, though Valtteri is believed to have an option to extend with them for another year should he choose to do so.
Valttieri’s manager, Didier Coton, announced that Bottas “wants to commit” to Williams as there is “an unfinished story between those two.” However, well connected Finnish F1 journalist claims today that Renault have made Bottas an offer which could be difficult to refuse.
“I know for sure that he has offers from both Williams and Renault at the moment,” says Oskari Saari. “Will the lure of a works drive be too hard to resist? Yes Renault are in transition and building towards competitiveness, but the challenge to part of that journey may be too hard to resist.
After a year when the driver market was dominated not by
Last year, the driver market stories were rather thin on the ground and it was Red Bull Racing’s claim they were being forced out of F1 which stole the ‘silly season’ headlines. Yet with Sergio Perez and his private bank of sponsors almost definitely on the move from Force India, the first proper announcement is likely to set the domino effect in motion. Then the futures of Massa, Bottas, Perez, Button, Van Doorne, Magnussen, Palmer and one or two others will be frenetically traded.
One predictable casualty has already been announced in the past 12 hours. Rio Haryanto will be replaced immediately by Mercedes junior driver Esteban Ocon – who is currently on loan as a reserve driver to Renault.
Ocon is highly rated by Mercedes and the current GP3 champion. The Frenchman also won the FIA European Formula 3 title in 2014 – beating none other than Max Verstappen.
Ocon joins another Mercedes protege, Pascal Wehrlein, at Manor F1.
“Esteban did an exceptional job in the works Mercedes at the Silverstone test,” remarked Brackley boss Toto Wolff, “and we are excited to see him take his first steps in an F1 race environment.”
For me bottas is overrated.
I agree with you that Bottas is overrated. Renault is a poor choice for him. Renault needs 3 to 4 years to get back in gear with a good possibility that they do not pour money or eventually get tired of wasting money and quit. Bottas does not have the time to wait on a long term contract with Renault that goes no where. Williams is his best option for 2017 since no big team will have a slot in 2017.
According to insiders, Williams still have an option for 2017 on Bottas so it won’t be that easy to get out of that. I think it’s probable that Bottas won’t want to sign an extension on the same terms, having learnt from his mistake in 2015 when he had to let the Ferrari opportunity pass by since the Italian company refused to buy him out. I think that is why he wanted to be more personally involved so his management would not make the same mistake twice.