Alfa Romeo has exchanged one Finn for another as the Formula One team announced that Valtteri Bottas will move to Alfa Romeo from Mercedes beginning in the 2022 season in a multi-year deal that is expected to span two or three years.
In addition to replacing one Finn with another – Bottas will be replacing the retiring Kimi Raikkonen – Alfa Romeo also knocks 10 years off the clock with the 32-year-old Bottas taking the place of the soon-to-be 42 year-old Raikkonen.
Bottas has spent nine years in Formula 1 – the first four at Williams and the last five at Mercedes – winning nine races and collecting 63 podium finishes [out of 169 starts] along the way. In the F1 driver’s championship, Bottas has finished second [twice] and third [twice] in the past five years and has only finished out of the Top 10 once [his first year] in his nine years of F1 racing.
Alfa Romeo are ninth in the constructors’ championship after 13 races this season and have yet to make an announcement on a second driver with Bottas next year but are reported to be considering their current driver Antonio Giovinazzi, former Red Bull driver Alexander Albon and Formula E world champion Nyck de Vries.