Valtteri Bottas has confirmed that he was in negotiations to join Haas for the F1 2025 season before being forced to settle for a Mercedes reserve role.

Bottas was left without a seat for F1 2025 after Audi F1, who will take over the existing Sauber team next year, opted for an all-new driver lineup of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto.

Valtteri Bottas confirms Haas talks before F1 2025 hopes faded

The Finn has been described as the unluckiest driver of last year’s silly season, having seen a number of doors close as the year developed.

PlanetF1.com revealed last May that Bottas had visited Williams team principal James Vowles over the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend at Imola, with the Finn understood to have regarded a return to Williams as his priority for F1 2025.

However, his hopes of landing a seat at Grove ended after Williams confirmed the signing of Carlos Sainz from Ferrari 24 hours after the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa in July.

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By that stage, Haas had already committed to fielding Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman for next season, with Alpine confirming Jack Doohan as Ocon’s replacement at the Dutch GP in late August.

It left Audi F1 as Bottas’s only realistic chance of remaining on the grid, with the driver confirming to media including PlanetF1.com at the United States GP in October that he had agreed terms with Sauber.

As reported by PlanetF1.com last month, Bottas was so confident of securing a Sauber seat that he physically signed a contract for F1 2025.

However, the team proceeded to confirm the signing of Bortoleto just two weeks later, taking away Bottas’ last hope of remaining on the grid.

Bottas has explained how his options for F1 2025 reduced as the driver market developed, having prioritised a move to Williams after talks with Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu before Sainz’s move was confirmed.

He told RN365: “There were other opportunities [beyond Audi F1].

“We were in very deep talks with Williams for a long time. That became my priority and, earlier in the year, we were in talks with Ayao for a drive with Haas.

“But I decided to put more eggs in the basket to go to Williams.

“Then that didn’t happen because Carlos and what he brings to the team in terms of the financial gains.

“Then I was left with this [Audi F1] project and it would have been nice, but I think the bigger people higher up thought a change is needed, including the drivers.”

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Bottas went on to claim that he received mixed messages from Audi F1 as 2024 developed, having been promised that he would be “the pillar for the project” by chief Mattia Binotto following the Ferrari team principal’s arrival last summer.

He explained: “Coming to the end of my contract, I started having a lot of questions about the future.

“But I was always very confident that I’d be on the grid, because that is how it looked.

“For the board of Audi, the decisions like drivers for the future will need to go through them.

“And some people really wanted me, but then some people wanted a change and to bring in a young driver.

“It was hard because I always got the indication, especially when Mattia joined, that I would be the pillar for the project, so it was hard to jump 100 per cent into something else because I got promised I would have a seat.

“Of course, you still want to look around but you can’t commit to anything, so then I was just waiting: ‘Okay, when do we sign?’

“And that became a question on a weekly basis even though everything was agreed and ready on paper.

“When that was delayed, then I kind of understood: ‘OK, there is something going on here and it is not going to be good for me.’”

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