© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says he “robbed” Valtteri Bottas of his 2018 Russian Grand Prix win, and suggest the Finn could return to the team in the future.
After five years with the team, Valtteri Bottas is no longer a Mercedes driver, as next year he starts his new role at Alfa Romeo.
In his final Mercedes video, Valtteri was putting in his key stats on his special Abu Dhabi Grand Prix helmet, with Toto Wolff there to help him.
When it came time to put in the number of wins Valtteri scored with Mercedes, Toto told him to add one more, acknowledging the time he was asked to move over for Lewis Hamilton at the 2018 Russian Grand Prix.
“[You have] 10 wins,” Wolff said.
“Plus Sochi, so 11. Or was there another one?”
To this Bottas said: “There was a few where I was robbed.”
“Yes but this one was really robbed,” Wolff replied.
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Valtteri then pointed out there were a few others where he was on his way to a win, before it was taken away at the last minute.
“Yeah but there were others like Baku where I got the puncture on the last lap… those kinds of things,” he said
Wolff then said that he was referring to the victory that he himself “robbed”:
“Ok this was a DNF, but the one that I robbed was Sochi. So put 10 plus 1.”
The Mercedes team boss then hinted that Valtteri could return to the team in the future:
“Well maybe you go on a little bit of a sabbatical with Alfa Romeo, and then we see how many more [wins] we can add.”
In the end Valtteri said: “The speed of this sport…you never know what comes ahead of you. At least I know for the next few years but you never know.”
