Bottas to drive for Mercedes again next season

BRACKLEY/SILVERSTONE: Valtteri Bottas has been retained by Mercedes for 2021. The Finnish driver heads into this weekend’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone 30 points adrift of team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the world championship.

Next season will mark Bottas’ fifth campaign with the Silver Arrows. Hamilton’s future beyond this year is yet to be confirmed but it is expected the six-time world champion will also stay with Mercedes.

Bottas, who won the opening round of the season in Austria, said: “I’m very happy to stay with Mercedes in 2021 and build on the success we’ve enjoyed together already. The past few years have been all about continuous improvement, working on every aspect of my performance.

“I’m confident that today I’m the strongest I’ve ever been, but I can always raise the bar. Ever since I fell in love with F1 as a kid it’s been my dream to one day become world champion. I’m in the fight for the title this year and staying with Mercedes puts me in the best possible position to compete for it next season as well.”

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel has warned Formula One to be prepared for unpredictable, cold and challenging weather when the circus travels to Germany’s “Siberia” in October. The coronavirus-hit 2020 season’s revised calendar has scheduled the Eifel Grand Prix for October 11, marking the Nurburgring circuit’s first return to the calendar since 2013 and in seriously autumnal conditions.

“It’s called the German Siberia for a reason,” the four-time champion Ferrari driver told Autosport. “We can expect anything. We can expect, if we are lucky, 20 degrees, but it could also be close to zero so it will be a challenge.

“I think it is a great track and I have good memories. Last time we were there I won, so I’m looking forward to going back.”

The average temperature for the Eifel mountain region is only 10 degrees Celsius in October. McLaren F1 team chief Andrea Seidl said he had raced at the Nurburgring many times “in heavy snow, fog and so on... So it will be interesting to see how it goes that late in the year.”

The fifth round of this year’s series, the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, takes place this weekend at Silverstone. It is due to be followed a week later by the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya, near Barcelona, but that race is in doubt due to a regional rise in COVID-19 and quarantine regulations in Britain and Spain.