Formula 1: Valtteri Bottas out at Mercedes after 2021?

Are the indications already in place that Valtteri Bottas will not be back with Mercedes for a sixth year in the 2022 Formula 1 season?

Valtteri Bottas is currently competing for Mercedes on a fifth consecutive one-year deal, having joined the team ahead of the 2017 Formula 1 season after the surprising retirement announcement of 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg.

Both Bottas and teammate Lewis Hamilton are competing for the team on one-year deals this season, with Bottas having re-signed last August and Hamilton having signed a new agreement back in February.

Read. Lewis Hamilton contract comments raise eyebrows. light

Hamilton and the team have already indicated their plans to remain together for what would be a 10th consecutive season in 2022, but things are seemingly a lot less certain with Bottas.

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There has already been quite a bit of speculation that Mercedes will look to promote George Russell, a member of the organization’s young driver program, after the 2021 season. Russell is in the third year of a three-year deal competing for Williams since joining the sport in 2019 following his 2018 Formula 2 championship.

Russell replaced Hamilton in last year’s Sakhir Grand Prix at Bahrain International Circuit after Hamilton tested positive for COVID-19, and he completely outperformed Bottas, despite the fact that he barely fit into Hamilton’s car and was left with banged up knees and bloody knuckles because of it.

Additionally, following last week’s news about Lando Norris, rival teams Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren have now all signed their young stars to multi-year deals, an area in which Mercedes are currently on the back foot with the 36-year-old Hamilton and the 31-year-old Bottas.

Ex-Formula 1 driver David Coulthard believes that Bottas may have already been informed by the Silver Arrows that he wont be back with the team in 2022, given what happened in the Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Hamilton was on a different strategy than Bottas was, trying to chase down race leader Max Verstappen of Red Bull after pitting for new tires. On old tires, Bottas, then running in second place, was informed that Hamilton was charging hard behind him on a different tire strategy.

But despite the fact that he was told to do so, Bottas refused to let his teammate pass him. It took a legitimate pass attempt by Hamilton to get the job done, and while he did ultimately catch and pass Verstappen for the lead and the win, this run-in delayed that pursuit by at least a couple of laps.

Bottas defended his actions afterward, though it didn’t matter much anyway since Hamilton had gone on to win. But what if he hadn’t won?

That’s what has Coulthard thinking. Here is what he had to say about the matter on the On The Marbles podcast.

"“I wonder if he’s actually been given the heads-up that maybe the contract won’t be getting renewed. It’s possible. When I left McLaren they told me in June, which was when the French Grand Prix used to be, a year before my contract ran out.”"

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Will Bottas be back with Mercedes for another season in 2022, or will Russell be named his replacement alongside Hamilton? Perhaps that has already been decided behind closed doors.

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