Formula 1: Mercedes’ secret message to Valtteri Bottas

Amid the disappointment of Sunday’s 2021 Formula 1 season finale for Mercedes was a touch of positivity and gratitude toward Valtteri Bottas.

While Mercedes sealed a record eighth consecutive Formula 1 world championship over Red Bull with their performance in Sunday’s 2021 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit, they were left disgruntled with the result of the driver championship.

A safety car period led to a controversial restart with one lap remaining, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen passed Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton on that final lap, utilizing his brand-new soft tires to overtake the driver on 43-lap-old hard tires.

The sequence of events denied Hamilton what would have been a record-breaking eighth world championship and a record-tying fifth in a row.

But amid all of the disappointment, the team found time to congratulate Valtteri Bottas on a job well done.

Bottas, who wasn’t much of a factor in the race itself, finished in sixth place, but he played a key role in the team securing another constructor championship. In fact, during all five seasons with the Silver Arrows, Bottas played a key role in the team securing this title.

But next year, he is set to move to Alfa Romeo, replacing the retiring Kimi Raikkonen alongside rookie Guanyu Zhou.

George Russell, who spent the first three seasons of his career with Williams, is set to replace the 32-year-old Finn, presumably alongside Hamilton.

After the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the 2021 season came to a dramatic end, the driver of the #77 Mercedes was told on the radio to select “Chassis Mode 77”.

That prompted the message “KIITOS VALTTERI”, a message which, when translated from Finnish to English, reads “THANK YOU VALTTERI”.

While the team would have been hoping to send him that message while celebrating eight consecutive world titles in both the driver and constructor categories, this did indeed provide a nice touch for the driver whose success for the team flew largely under the radar, considering the fact that he was the clear number two driver behind the greatest driver in the history of Formula 1, at least from a statistical perspective.

Bottas finished his five-year run with Mercedes having secured 10 victories, including a career-high four in the 2019 season, and 58 podium finishes, including a career-high 15 in 2019.

He also recorded 20 pole positions, including a career-high five in both the 2019 and 2020 seasons. He finished as high as second place in the driver standings in the 2019 and 2020 seasons as well, both times behind Hamilton.