Valtteri Bottas issues Williams imminent deadline for 2025 contract after secret meeting

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Valtteri Bottas has issued Williams an imminent deadline to agree a contract for the 2025 season after the Sauber driver secretly met the Formula 1 team at Silverstone.

Talks have taken place between Williams and Bottas as the Grove squad consider moving on from Logan Sargeant. An attempt to tempt Carlos Sainz to join Williams in 2025 has also not paid off ahead of the Spaniard leaving Ferrari at the end of 2024 to see Lewis Hamilton join.

Williams team principal James Vowles was not afraid to publicly name Sainz as his top target if they replace Sargeant. But the winner of the 2024 Australian Grand Prix forced Williams to look elsewhere after Sainz ceased all negotiations amid a last-chance approach from Alpine.

Valtteri Bottas wants Williams to finalise a contract before F1’s summer break

Bottas has since emerged as a prime alternative candidate to Sainz as Sargeant continues to struggle for Williams. The 23-year-old achieved his best result of the season last time out at the British GP with P11. Yet teammate Alex Albon got points with his second P9 of the year.

But Bottas will not wait around forever with the 34-year-old also facing an uncertain future as his contract with Sauber expires at the end of this year. So, Blick now reports that Bottas has set Williams a deadline of the upcoming summer break to finalise his contract for 2025.

READ MORE: F1 2025 driver line-up with every team’s confirmed entry for the grid

Formula 1 heads for the Hungarian GP this weekend in a double-header with the Belgian GP before a three-week break. Bottas longs to head into the summer knowing whom he will be racing for next season and has even stated that he will not sign a one-year deal to stay in F1.

Bottas likely made his position clear to Williams during the British GP weekend after holding a secret meeting at Silverstone. The 10-time Grand Prix winner snuck into their motorhome in a black T-shirt and cap as Bottas and Vowles sat down for 30 minutes to discuss a move.

James Vowles is a big fan of Valtteri Bottas after working together at Mercedes

Williams team principal Vowles is a big fan of Bottas having worked with him throughout the Finn’s time at Mercedes. What impressed Vowles the most was how Bottas could also hold a candle to Hamilton in qualifying and even edge the driver with the most pole positions in F1.

“Valtteri, you don’t out-qualify Lewis unless you are bloody quick in the car,” Vowles recently said on the Motormouth Podcast. “It’s as simple as that.”

READ MORE: Every 2024 Formula 1 driver’s contract length and wage

Bottas earned all 20 of his career Formula 1 pole positions as Hamilton’s teammate between 2016 and 2021. But he also spent each season at Mercedes, where Vowles was their head of strategy, on single-year deals. Sauber gave Bottas a three-year contract to join from 2022.

Now, Bottas will not take another single-year contract to stay in Formula 1, so Williams must give him a multi-year deal to replace Sargeant. The $725m (£558m) valued team already have Albon tied down through at least the 2026 season but Sargeant’s deal ends after 2024.