It is no secret that Toto Wolff has a HUGE decision to make regarding who will get the second Mercedes F1 seat in 2022, but it comes down to two:
Bottas and Russell.

Valtteri Bottas has not had the greatest of seasons to say the least, having had 4 non-points scoring races in just 11 rounds, compared to only two in 2020. However, he has been at the team since 2017, after Nico Rosberg's shock retirement announcement, and has been a fantastic number two driver to Lewis Hamilton throughout his time at Mercedes. For Wolff, and the team, signing Bottas for 2022 would mean stability going into a very unknown year with HUGE regulation changes coming into effect in order to promote better, closer and fairer racing across the grid. However, with the risk of that closer competition, can Mercedes really afford Bottas to make silly mistakes like he did at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix? Not likely.

Which brings me to George. Mr. Saturday as he is well-known as. He is Mercedes' future, their prodigy if you will. Mercedes have been guiding Russell throughout his career and have supported him even finding a seat at Williams in Formula One. Russell has honed his craft over the past two or so years, and is now eager to jump into a Mercedes. And with Bottas' performance been found sorely lacking, surely this is the perfect time for him to push Wolff to give him the seat. But again, it comes down to stability. Does Toto and Mercedes really want the added pressure of having a new driver in the team who has to get used to all the staff and the team? Welll normally they'd say no. But George has been intigrating himself into the team since 2017/2018 and proved that he could be dependable when the going got tough, such as when he joined Williams who were having a tough time of it, or when Mercedes had a nightmare race at the Sakhir Grand Prix at the end of 2020. So Toto may think that the risk could be worth the reward. And bringing him in when the big regulation changes come in mean that everyone is on a level playing field and so he will be able to learn the car just like everyone else will have to while already being partially integrated into the team from his test days there in the past.

Speaking of test days, he recently completed the Pirelli tyre test at the Hungaroring after the Hungarian Grand Prix for none other than (you guessed it) Mercedes! Could this be a hint at the Brit's 2022 signing? We'll have to wait and see. But we may have to wait longer than til Spa to find out, as Wolff has said he will delay the decision until September to allow for the drivers to find an appropriate team, and so he can ensure the driver who doesn't go to Mercedes will be left well off with another team.

So. Who will get the seat at Mercedes F1 team for 2022? Let me know your thoughts on it in the comments below!

#F1 #Bottas #Russell

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