LONDON: Valtteri Bottas replaced retired Formula One world champion Nico Rosberg at Mercedes yesterday, with Brazilian veteran Felipe Massa coming out of retirement to take the Finn’s seat at Williams.
Appearing at the factory with team boss Toto Wolff, Bottas promised to push new team mate and triple world champion Lewis Hamilton as hard as possible.
“I’m sure we are going to be close and both pushing each other forward,” said the 27-year-old, who has yet to win a grand prix in four years at Williams but has appeared on the podium nine times.
Williams had earlier announced that Massa, who left at the end of last season at the age of 35, had agreed a one-year contract to end the shortest of retirements.
Mercedes have been dominant for the last three years, winning both the drivers and constructors’ titles, and will start as favourites again despite major aerodynamic rule changes.
While Hamilton, 32, can expect to be the team’s main man - with many tipping the Briton to romp to a fourth title after winning 10 races in a rollercoaster 2016 – Bottas can be a genuine contender.
Massa, a former race winner with Ferrari and 2008 world championship runner-up, will partner 18-year-old Canadian rookie Lance Stroll at Williams.
Sauber earlier set the day’s merry-go-round in motion by announcing that German driver Pascal Wehrlein, who was the Mercedes reserve and Bottas’s main rival to replace Rosberg, would race for them this year.
The day’s announcements left tail-enders Manor, who are in administration and seeking a rescuer, as the only team with any potential driver vacancies for the season starting in Australia on March 26.