“It’s an interesting era for the team”: Valtteri Bottas looking to stick around for Audi F1’s 2026 entry project

As part of the initial two-plus one-year deal, Valtteri Bottas signed with his team prior to the 2022 season. He has the option to remain with Alfa Romeo through to 2024.

Bottas had avoided planning forward too much for the future of the team. But he has recently acknowledged that it would be advantageous for him to stay on board when Alfa Romeo rebrands into Audi. The new team is set to enter Formula One at the beginning of 2026.

"The more I think about it, yes. For me, it's an interesting era for the team. When you are focused on the here and now, you don’t want to sometimes think too far ahead – but then, if I really think about it, and the long term plan, then it would make sense." He said (via Motorsport.com)

Valtteri Bottas has stated that everyone in the team is working hard to transition into Audi and it is not disrupting their current team plans and its progress. Bottas has five points for Alfa Romeo so far this season.

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He has now outscored his teammate Guanyu Zhou by one point as a result. The team has not had a strong season thus far, but it recently surprised watchers during qualification in Hungary.

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Valtteri Bottas believes that Alfa Romeo has been "out-developed" by other teams

Alfa Romeo is now ninth in the Constructors' Championship after 12 races in 2023, with just nine points. The team is getting ready to revert to Sauber in 2024 and 2025 in order to compete as Audi from 2026.

"We've been out-developed, and also with the way the car was born, the pure performance level was not where we wanted," Bottas said (via racingnews365.com)

Valtteri Bottas is not having an ideal season, he has scored only five points for the team. Bottas believes that the team is working hard to end the recent slump that they have been having and trying to turn around their season.