Valtteri Bottas is a multiple-race winning driver of Formula 1. He was with Mercedes F1 team from 2015 to 2022, partnering Lewis Hamilton. Bottas was known for his ability to help Hamilton and score points for the team on equal grounds. In some ways, he was the second driver to Lewis Hamilton that Red Bull wish they had for Max Verstappen. Bottas raced for Sauber during the 2023 and 2024 F1 seasons. He could not bring in any extraordinary performances and was often eliminated in Q1 during qualifying sessions. Valtteri Bottas was replaced at Sauber ahead of the 2025 season. The Finnish winner is sitting out the 2025 season as a reserve driver for his previous team. Mercedes announced his arrival just ahead of the 2025 season.<\/p>
Valtteri Bottas is still a part of Mercedes’s F1 ambitions. However, in a recent post shared by him, Bottas was seen driving another car on the 2025 grid. He was seen in the Papaya colors testing McLaren’s car for them<\/a>. This recent development has made fans ponder- is Valtteri Bottas switching to McLaren? Let’s take a look at the current situation in order to determine the secret behind Bottas’s session with McLaren.<\/p> McLaren is the power unit customer of Mercedes AMG. As a part of the agreement between these customers, McLaren and Mercedes share access to each other’s drivers and resources in order to tackle emergency situations. McLaren have a reserve driver for themselves- Pat O Ward. However, Pato is currently involved in his IndyCar career and he can’t take part in any test with McLaren. As such, Mercedes have loaned Valtteri Bottas to McLaren in order to complete their TPC test. Bottas won’t be running their latest car. Instead, he will be behind the wheel of the 2023 McLaren.<\/p>Valtteri Bottas Races a McLaren 2023 F1 Car<\/h2>