Williams offered contract to F1 star before signing Carlos Sainz – ‘That’s F1’ | F1 | Sport

Valtteri Bottas has revealed that he already had a contract drawn up with Williams for the 2025 season when Carlos Sainz signed for the team, kicking him to the Formula One kerb. The Finn has spent the campaign on the sidelines as a third driver for Mercedes, but will make his full-time return to the grid in 2026 with the new Cadillac squad.

Bottas was put in an awkward position by Sauber last year, as the Hinwil-based outfit notified him and team-mate Zhou Guanyu late in the campaign that they wouldn’t be returning in 2026. Instead, Formula Two champion Gabriel Bortoleto was poached to team up with Nico Hulkenberg.

Still, the 10-time Grand Prix winner Bottas nearly found his way back onto the grid. “I like working with him [James Vowles] and I was actually, yeah, pretty close to signing with them for this year,” he told Motorsport Week. 

“Yeah, last year we had the contract already, so it was pretty close.” Asked what stopped him from joining the Williams squad, he added candidly: “Carlos Sainz happened. So, yeah, that’s F1.”

After a slow start with his new team, Sainz has taken to life with Williams. The Spaniard scored the first podium of Vowles’ tenure at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after a barnstorming performance in qualifying, and he clinched another top-three finish in the sprint race at the Circuit of the Americas.

There has been success on the other side of the garage, too. Alex Albon is only 16 points behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in the Drivers’ Championship standings with five races remaining, and has scored four top-five finishes this season.

For the latest breaking stories and headlines, sign up to our Daily Express F1 newsletter, or join our WhatsApp community here.

These results mean that Williams are cruising towards a fifth-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship, with the gap to Racing Bulls in sixth standing at 39 points heading into the Mexican Grand Prix.

“Yeah, I think they’re definitely getting on the right track,” Bottas assessed, looking at Williams’ fortunes under Vowles’ leadership. “They’ve made progress. Still a bit variable weekend to weekend, but if you look at where they were a few years ago, they’ve done a great job. I think backing now, they are behind [a] good investment group, and also James has brought so much knowledge from Mercedes, so he’s done really well.”

Bottas will look forward to his own new adventure next year with Cadillac. The Finn will partner former Red Bull and Racing Point star Sergio Perez in Graeme Lowdon’s team, and the Mexican driver will take to the track in Imola for a test in Ferrari machinery as the American squad step up race weekend preparations in anticipation of their F1 debut.