Valtteri Bottas appeared in another silly social media video this week, marking his return ‘home’ to Mercedes in Brackley.

Bottas has been signed as Mercedes’ reserve driver for the F1 2025 championship, with the Finn returning to the team for whom he raced between 2017 and ’21.

Valtteri Bottas’ new social media video released

Bottas has developed a significant online presence as a personality very different to the man who left Mercedes at the conclusion of the 2021 season.

Coinciding with his relationship with Australian cyclist Tiffany Cromwell deepening, Bottas becoming an ‘honorary Australian’ has seen the once very reserved and shy Finn emerge to become a more outgoing and quirky character, no stranger to amusing social media videos.

Upon his return to Mercedes, Bottas and the team released a new social media video with the Finn dancing his way into the building at Brackley, before pointing to a ‘Kiitos Valtteri’ sticker on a Mercedes car on display in the reception area.

Pausing for a cup of coffee on a sofa, Bottas turns to the camera and says “Traditions” and “I’m home” after a sigh of relief.

Returning to Mercedes, where he remains at hand should either George Russell or Kimi Antonelli be unable to take part in a race weekend, the Finn revealed at the end of the F1 2024 season that his move to Sauber had been a “mistake”.

He had switched to the Hinwil-based squad for 2022 but revealed the competitiveness of the team fell apart – particularly after the departure of team boss Fred Vasseur to join Ferrari for 2023.

“It was a mistake. But you can’t predict the future,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com, in Abu Dhabi.

“Everything started well off in the first year, but since then, it was downhill. But you just can’t predict the future. That’s how it is.

“And I just want to make sure that the next move I make is going to be a good one and hopefully there’s better times to come.”

Any concerns that Bottas’ fun personality may be squashed down again upon his return to Mercedes have been downplayed by the Brackley-based team, who insist the Finn is free to continue showcasing his unique personality without any constraint – apart from keeping his bottom under wraps.

Bottas had become infamous for going nude on social media, showing off his bottom in some Instagram posts following the popularity of a scene in the Netflix show Drive to Survive which showed the Finn in a sauna. It led Bottas to release a nude calendar of 13 images last year, but he won’t be able to do the same this season.

Speaking to the media last month, Wolff told RN365, “We are Mercedes, so maybe the nude calendar is not on anymore.

“So we’ve said that, but we need to keep him authentic.”

Upon his return to Mercedes, the only request made of Bottas was to tone down the nudity out of deference to Mercedes’ title sponsor Petronas – a global corporation owned by the Malaysian government.

Out of respect for the cultural norms of Malaysia and the state religion of Islam, Bottas will thus stay covered up while at Mercedes – a polite request that the Finn readily agreed to.

But Mercedes won’t have a problem with him keeping his bleached-blonde mullet, or his increasingly impressive moustache.

“If he wants to keep the ugly mullet, then he should,” Wolff smiled.

 

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