Valtteri Bottas drops potential major tease on F1 future in social media post

Valtteri Bottas has yet to secure his place on the 2025 F1 grid

Valtteri Bottas may have dropped a major hint about his F1 future with the Finn posting a photograph on social media of an Audi road car branded with his number ’77’.

Bottas is one of a handful of Formula 1 drivers without a confirmed seat for next season, and his options are dwindling.

Valtteri Bottas is running out of options for F1 2025

There are only four seats still available and two of those, Mercedes and VCARB, already have a name pencilled in, as is the case with Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes, or are just not open to Bottas as with Red Bull’s junior team.

That leaves Alpine, who are said to be deciding between Jack Doohan and Mick Schumacher, and Bottas’ current Sauber team.

The latter has already confirmed one of its two drivers for the F1 2025 season having signed Nico Hulkenberg, with Bottas up against his team-mate Zhou Guanyu to see who stays, if either.

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The Finn, a 10-time Grand Prix winner, has made it clear that’s his target but admits his talks with the team about next season were “reset” when Sauber announced Mattia Binotto in the newly-created role of Chief Operating and Chief Technical Officer.

“It is going to reset a bit the talks, because we have previously been in communication with Andreas and Oliver, and now it’s Mattia,” he said.

“So yeah, for sure that will change some things, so we need to… We need to speak. It’s a bit of a complicated situation, but let’s see.”

But has he since secured his future?

Posting photographs on social media entitled “fun day in California”, the former Mercedes driver showed off an Audi road car, the R8, branded with his F1 number, ’77’.

It was met with delight from his fans who were all keen to know if the photographs meant Bottas, who made his F1 debut with Williams in 2013, would have a 13th season on the grid.

But while his social media post could be seen as a hint of what’s to come, on the other side of the garage Zhou believes he has a ““50 per cent or more” chance of staying in Formula 1.

“For the future or for next year, it’s definitely better. I’ve known him for quite a while now, being involved with Ferrari’s academy for several years,” the Chinese driver told The Race.

“I want to stay in this championship. That’s what I want to do. But in terms of what I do, if I become a third driver, I haven’t thought about it.

“My mindset is on getting a seat because there’s still, I would say, a chance of 50 per cent or more that I get a seat.”

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