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Valtteri Bottas will head into his Formula 1 return this season believing himself to be more knowledgeable than ever before, despite spending a year on the sidelines with Mercedes.

After 13 consecutive seasons in F1, Bottas found himself off the grid at the end of 2024 after being released by Sauber, leading to a return to Mercedes as reserve driver following a five-year spell from 2017 to 2021.

During that time, although Bottas found himself second best to Lewis Hamilton, the Finn helped Mercedes win five successive constructors' championships before moving to Sauber, then known as Alfa Romeo.

At the time, in taking on the reserve role, Bottas was determined to keep himself relevant in the F1 paddock in case an opportunity materialised.

As it transpired, following F1's confirmation that Cadillac would be the 11th team on the grid this year, the American marque opted for an experienced line-up for its first season, with Bottas joined by another returnee in Sergio Pérez.

Bottas feels that what he learned from all the Mercedes meetings he was involved with, and the constant flow of information over the team radio throughout an entire grand prix weekend, will stand him in good stead for the coming year with Cadillac.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with RacingNews365 late last year, highlighting his key learnings from his time with Mercedes, Bottas said: "Probably seeing the sport from a different angle.

"Because when you're racing, when I'm on track, you only have one point of contact really, and that's your engineer. That's all you know.

"But each session, each event, I was hearing everything, on all the channels, and really seeing in much more detail how the team operates, when it comes to track operations, the different departments. I just have much more knowledge than I ever had before.

"As a race driver, you're really working with a handful of people throughout the weekend, and you're trying to simplify certain things and prioritise certain things.

"But now, when I had a bit more time, I saw it all, how it actually works, which can really help me in joining a team that is building everything from scratch.

"There might be times, and I'm pretty sure there will be, when I'll think about how Mercedes did it, that maybe it could work for us, and stuff like that. I think it can help me."

Also interesting:

Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes and Nick Golding, as they look back on last week's five-day F1 test in Barcelona. McLaren's upgrade strategy is discussed, as is Aston Martin grabbing much attention with its striking AMR26.

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