Bottas 'thankful' to Mercedes for F1 lifeline

Valtteri Bottas is "thankful" to Mercedes for providing him with a "solid option" of an F1 lifeline following his Stake axe.

Bottas will not be on the 2025 grid after Stake opted to sign Gabriel Bortoleto to partner Nico Hulkenberg, meaning the Finn is set to be without a race seat for the first time since making his debut in 2013.

He has been in discussions with Mercedes over a return as the third and reserve driver to George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, after driving for the team between 2017 and 2021, winning 10 races and helping Lewis Hamilton to deliver five straight constructors' championships. 

The only remaining seats on the full-time grid for 2025 are within the Red Bull eco-system, but Bottas has suggested senior personnel at Red Bull do not like him, meaning his only realistic option to remain within F1 is the reserve bench at Mercedes.

It is something Bottas has thanked Toto Wolff for, although nothing is yet to be formally signed.

"We've been talking for quite a long time, but I want to see all of the options," Bottas told media when asked by RacingNews365 if the reserve option was appealing. 

"If I look at it, there are many positive things about it, and being back in the Mercedes family, it is a great team, a great brand. 

"It creates lots of opportunities for the future and it is a really solid option for me, and actually, I'm really thankful that they are willing to take me in."

When pushed on how the arrangement could work and if he would be on-site at all 24 2025 grands prix, Bottas was unsure.

"That is the thing, that if you don't go to all the races, and something happens [to Russell or Antonelli] and you are not there, you don't get [to race].

"So it is these kinds of things I still need to think about and speak with them and try to figure out what is next."