Toto Wolff began his parting message to Valtteri Bottas by stressing the difficulty of the decision Mercedes had made to replace him. Although Mercedes’ official announcement was carefully worded not to make it blatantly obvious that Bottas had been pushed out, there were signals within Wolff’s words that it had not been the Finn’s independent choice to leave. Of course, in reality, it has been clear for several months that the World Champions were deliberating whether to have Bottas or George Russell as Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate next year. The next official announcement from Mercedes, therefore, is almost certain to be that Russell will drive for them in 2022 and beyond. But...
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