Valtteri Bottas has reflected on his season on the F1 sidelines, having been Mercedes reserve driver to George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
Valtteri Bottas shared how “challenging” he found life as an F1 reserve driver during his season away from a full-time race seat. The Cadillac driver spent 2025 on the sidelines after losing his Stake driver at the end of the previous year, but stayed active in F1 by supporting George Russell and Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes. Bottas agreed with his former team-mate Zhou Guanyu, who found it mentally tough backing up Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari last year. He acknowledged that being a reserve driver after racing in Formula 1 is not easy, especially when one still has the hunger to be a driver. Bottas highlighted the importance of staying within the sport and appreciated his opportunity to be with a decent team and program. Despite the challenges, he concluded that stepping back from racing was the right decision for him, even though it was difficult and not the same as competing on track.
