Bottas has returned to Mercedes this season as reserve driver after Sauber opted not to renew his race deal.

The Finn won 10 races with the Brackley squad in a five-year stint from 2017, driving alongside Lewis Hamilton to help it claim the constructors’ championship in each of those campaigns.

Now 35, Bottas has rejoined Mercedes in support of race drivers George Russell and new recruit Kimi Antonelli.

However, the team is open to expanding that to include the potential for rivals to loan him as needed.

In previous years, the Brackley operation has had a sharing arrangement, giving selected teams access to its pool of reserve drivers.

Last year, Mick Schumacher was available to both McLaren and Williams should either team have needed a reserve driver.

That built on a similar relationship in 2023 when Schumacher tested McLaren’s MCL35M—the car Daniel Ricciardo drove to victory in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.

“We ran through some different projects, it was mainly about driving style and getting to understand the tyre,” the German said of that experience.

“The tyre we used is an academy tyre, so it is a little different, but it is a great one to learn on and improve my skills, and that is what we were really focused on.

“It was good to get a feeling for driving a race-winning car, as this car won in Monza.

“It was great gaining the knowledge of how to drive this car and how to get around in it quickly.”

Speedcafe understands no such deal is currently in place for 2025 with Bottas signed exclusively as Mercedes’ reserve driver.

However, the team has not ruled out reprising a similar arrangement with McLaren and/or Williams, both of which are Mercedes power unit customers.

Such a deal could be useful for McLaren should race drivers Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri ever become unable to race—as almost happened to Norris at Monaco in 2022 when Mercedes reserve driver Nyck de Vries was put on notice.

With F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto having left the McLaren development program in favour of a race seat at Sauber this season there is no ready internal replacement.

Pato O’Ward has limited F1 experience and responsibilities in the United States that will preclude him for much of the season and none of the others drivers in the program are senior enough to be a consideration.

Bottas would, therefore, offer a good alternative should McLaren find itself in need of a reserve driver in certain situations.

For that to happen, however, an agreement between with Mercedes would need to be reached.

While it’s entirely plausible that will happen at some stage, for the moment there is nothing in place.