Toto Wolff's Plans Falling Apart This Week?
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Having drivers on your books being their agent can make things trickier as we can now imagine having both Bottas and Russell. An agent should be getting the best deal possible which is not going to happen in this case.
This week has been an interesting week in Formula One listening to the interviews and reading the various reports. If you pay attention so much is said and why I am now 99% sure Valtteri Bottas is leaving Mercedes at the end of this season.
First off we had reports that Red Bull are in discussions with Williams racing about supplying them with power units. Red Bull have qquired the right s from Honda for their engine and currently supply Alpha Tauri and themselves. Supplying the power units to 3 teams would help spread the costs and makes business sense.
What is interesting is Mercedes currently supply Williams and Toto Wolff is a share holder in both teams. He was obviously not happy about this as we heard he was in disapproval of Williams considering Alex Albon as their driver for next season. Why would he worry if George Russel was not moving which now tells me he definitely is.
Toto Wolff is also George Russell's and Valtteri Bottas agent so in his mind he would take George to Mercedes and said Bottas to Williams with them both keeping a seat for next season. That is keeping it simple but as we all know life doesn't work that way.
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20years in the sport (2001) and 345 races later he is a man of very few words lol. Quite funny when the media asked the other drivers if they would miss him as many don't even know him and some were even team mates for a few seasons.
Kimi Raikkonen announced his retirement on Thursday bringing an end to a long Formula One career. He drives for Alfa Romeo and now suddenly Bottas is tipped to be replacing his seat for next season. Things just got more complicated as part of the deal Toto was negotiating would have been Bottas along with keeping the Mercedes engine as part of a package deal.
Keeping Williams as an engine customer is very important for Mercedes bottom line as it helps spread the costs of such a costly project. There are only 10 teams and losing one to a rival is not exactly great for development and more importantly the profit line.
Ferrari supply engines to Alfa Romeo, Haas and themselves so 3 is about the maximum they can cope with.
Mercedes supply McLaren ,Williams ,Aston Martin and themselves which is 4 and are maxed out but make profit.
Red Bull supply Alpha Tauri which is Red Bull's second team plus themselves so in theory Red Bull are paying for everything and having one more customer would help.
Renault Alpine supply themselves only as others have tried their power units in the past and have been a little unreliable.
Bottas moving outside to another tam is not what Toto wants to even think about as he has no leverage besides his small share holding at Williams. I do believe he could block Albon from going to Williams but may not as long as they keep the Mercedes power units. This may be the way Williams wants to negotiate a new deal as it puts Toto on the back foot and maybe their is a deal to be had paying less for their engines.
Whatever happens we do know now Bottas is leaving Mercedes as so much has been given away with reactions of certain individuals. Announcements will have to be made soon as we only have 10 races of this season left which tells me for stability in the team this is now being delayed. Mercedes need to have a commanding lead which doesn't look like that is happening any time soon so maybe we have to wait another month or two.