{"id":35658,"date":"2025-07-07T06:06:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T10:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=35658"},"modified":"2025-07-07T06:16:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T10:16:32","slug":"alpine-interest-in-valtteri-bottas-increasing-says-wolff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/07\/07\/alpine-interest-in-valtteri-bottas-increasing-says-wolff\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpine Interest in Valtteri Bottas “Increasing”, says Wolff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Valtteri Bottas is currently in negotiations with Alpine<\/a>, as the French team explore their options for next year. As revealed by Toto Wolff in a recent interview, Bottas is receiving steadily growing interest from the Enstone squad.<\/p>\n

Bottas on Alpine’s radar as Colapinto remains under scrutiny<\/h2>\n

It was only a few weeks ago that reports first circulated about contact between Alpine and Bottas.<\/p>\n

These parties were hardly discussed as a potential partnership until very recently – even amidst the chaos of last year’s driver market.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bottas was never mentioned as an option for the French team when they replaced Ocon at the end of 2024, with other names mentioned as under consideration instead.<\/p>\n

Even when Ocon’s replacement, Jack Doohan<\/a>, lost his seat, there was no surprise when Franco Colapinto took his place.<\/p>\n

Having spent a significant fee to sign Colapinto from Williams, the consensus only a few months ago was that he was an important part of Alpine’s long-term plans.<\/p>\n

However, the situation at Flavio Briatore’s team appears to have changed quite drastically.<\/p>\n

Briatore has voiced his frustration with Colapinto<\/a> on multiple occasions since the Argentine became a full-time driver.<\/p>\n

The 74-year-old has been particularly critical of the Argentine’s crashes – with his tally increasing in Silverstone after spinning in qualifying.<\/p>\n

Although Colapinto was unlucky in the British GP itself, suffering a mechanical failure before the race began, this is unlikely to change Briatore’s verdict of his F1 return.<\/p>\n

Whilst Bottas is far from guaranteed to join Alpine, there is evidently some level of interest.<\/p>\n

The 10-time race winner is an experienced pair of hands that could be relied upon to deliver consistent results.<\/p>\n

Alpine’s A525 is arguably the slowest car on the grid, so points will be difficult for whoever occupies one of the Alpine seats.<\/p>\n

However, this does not change Flavio Briatore’s high expectations for his drivers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Briatore consistently focuses on driver performance and team operational errors – rather than the A525’s raw performance – when reflecting on results from a race weekend.<\/p>\n

Pierre Gasly’s P6 in Silverstone will further validate his belief that Colapinto should be getting better results, irrespective of his machinery.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Valtteri Bottas, KICK Sauber F1 Team, in the garage ; 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, Formula One World Championship<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wolff reveals Bottas interest<\/h4>\n

With Alpine currently last in the Championship, they are on course for their worst season in F1 history.<\/p>\n

This is obviously a situation the team will want to avoid, and could thus trigger another mid-season driver swap.<\/p>\n

It is important to underline that Colapinto’s future at Enstone is not over yet. As this sport continuously demonstrates, fortunes can change quickly.<\/p>\n

Still, was asked if Flavio Briatore has approached him about Valtteri Bottas, Toto Wolff’s<\/a> response was telling:<\/p>\n

“A few times, actually,”<\/em> Wolff told Viaplay.<\/p>\n

“I saw him today and we talked about Valtteri. It seems that the interest in Valtteri is increasing even more.<\/em><\/p>\n

“He deserves that seat. If someone grabs him as a race driver, we\u2019ll let him go. Of course, with a tear in the corner of our eye.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Ultimately, I give him advice as a friend. <\/em>Valtteri ultimately makes the choice with his management.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I try to stay in the background.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Valtteri Bottas, KICK Sauber F1 Team; 2024 Qatar Grand Prix, Formula One World Championship<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alpine are not the only team with an interest in Valtteri Bottas for 2026.<\/p>\n

As reported by LWOS and other outlets, the Finn is one of the leading contenders to join Cadillac<\/a> in 2026.<\/p>\n

Therefore, Flavio Briatore’s pursuit of the 35-year-old’s signature will not be without competition.<\/p>\n

Should Briatore definitively commit to signing Bottas – which still remains to be seen – he will have to offer a compelling deal.<\/p>\n

Bottas will certainly demand a longer contract with stronger guarantees than the string of drivers to join Alpine in the last twelve months.<\/p>\n

Regarding any agreement between both parties, nothing – at least for now – is set in stone.<\/p>\n

Over the coming weeks, however, more updates should emerge on this evolving saga.<\/p>\n

Main photo: Sauber media gallery<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valtteri Bottas is currently in negotiations with Alpine, as the French team explore their options for next year. As revealed by Toto Wolff in a recent interview, Bottas is receiving steadily growing interest from the Enstone squad. Bottas on Alpine’s radar as Colapinto remains under scrutiny It was only a few weeks ago that reports […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":35660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[1567,853,2452,825],"class_list":["post-35658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-alpine","tag-bottas","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-toto-wolff"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35658"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35672,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35658\/revisions\/35672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}