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Valtteri Bottas leaves Mercedes for Alfa Romeo
Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU AFP
Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas is leaving the Mercedes works team after five years, making way for top talent George Russell.
Bottas is moving to Alfa Romeo in the coming season and will sign a contract for several years, the former Sauber team from Switzerland announced on Monday.
There Bottas is replacing his Finnish compatriot Kimi Räikkönen, who will end his career in winter.
At Mercedes, the place next to record world champion Lewis Hamilton will be vacated, and that his compatriot Russell will take it has been an open secret for weeks - but it was not yet confirmed on Monday lunchtime either.
Since Bottas' future has now been officially clarified, the Russell personality should also be announced soon.
The 23-year-old has been promoted to the Mercedes junior squad since 2017, and his promotion to the world championship team was ultimately only a matter of time.
This season Russell is still driving for the defeated Williams team and is showing strong performances there week after week.
The highlight was the second grid position in qualifying at Spa at the end of August.
Since there was no real race in Belgium due to the heavy rain, Russell also celebrated his first podium there.
Last season, the Englishman was also allowed to replace the sick Hamilton at Mercedes in Bahrain and would have won the race right away if the pit crew hadn't made a mistake.
Due to his strong performances in the junior series and now in Formula 1, Russell has long been considered the Crown Prince of his so successful compatriot.
In the coming season, the premier class will probably be offered the direct generation duel at Mercedes.
aha / sid
