Formula 1 News: Bottas to Alpine a 'nice theory'

(GMM) Valtteri Bottas’ (pictured) time on the Formula 1 bench could be coming to a rapid end.

As Franco Colapinto struggles to find his feet at Alpine, strong rumors are suddenly swirling about contact between de-facto team boss Flavio Briatore and Mercedes’ Toto Wolff.

It is unclear whether Briatore, 75, really is considering another mid-season driver change in 2025, or whether he is making plans for the 2026 season.

An Alpine team insider told Auto Motor und Sport: “Colapinto is losing too much time to (Pierre) Gasly.”

When asked, Wolff – currently with 35-year-old Bottas under contract as full-time reserve driver – admitted he has a “coffeehouse friendship” with Briatore.

As for the Bottas-to-Alpine rumor specifically, especially with Alpine switching to customer Mercedes power and gearboxes next year, he told motorsport-total.com: “Nice theory.

“But it didn’t come from me.”

Nelson Piquet jr, who fell out spectacularly with Briatore over the infamous ‘crashgate’ scandal, cannot believe that Alpine is really considering Bottas.

“Choose a young talent, like (Felipe) Drugovich, several from Indy, Paul Aron, Alex Dunne – or choose a mediocre driver who’s been out for a while?” he exclaimed on social media,” he said.

“FFS, the old guy running that team is worse than I thought.”

Bottas declared in Austria that his deadline for a decision about his future is now looming large. “These things should be finished here during July,” he told Ilta Sanomat newspaper.

“July starts next week, so it will be an interesting month ahead.”

The Finn was already strongly linked with the new-for-2026 team Cadillac, whose boss Graeme Lowdon will be in the paddock at Silverstone for talks.

He was asked by Sky Deutschland if he had seen Bottas’ recent cheeky social media post when he was filmed stroking the “nice seat” of a Cadillac road car.

“I did,” Lowdon smiled. “It shows that he bought a Cadillac!”

Lowdon reportedly plans to pair an experienced driver like Bottas or Perez with a younger American rookie like Colton Herta.

“Everyone wants to drive a Cadillac,” Lowdon smiled again.

“The good thing is that we know a lot of the drivers who are out there – both the younger drivers coming in from Formula 2 and the more established drivers who have a lot of Formula 1 experience.

“We talk to these people all the time and try to spend time in the paddock as well. But so far, the real focus has been on building the car,” he added. “We won’t be announcing anything at Silverstone, but stay tuned.”