Bottas "emotional" in spectacular final farewell to Mercedes

Valtteri Bottas has bid an "emotional" final farewell to Mercedes ahead of his Alfa Romeo switch for the 2022 F1 season.

Bottas will form one half of an all-new driver line-up for Alfa Romeo next year alongside Guanyu Zhou, but after sampling the Italian manufacturers' machinery in Abu Dhabi, the Finn returned to Brackley for one last visit to the Mercedes factory.

In his time with Mercedes, Bottas achieved 10 race wins and 48 other podium finishes. He also reached Q3 in all of his 102 qualifying sessions for the team.

"It's my last day at the Mercedes factory and it has been emotional," said Bottas.

"It has been nice to see all of the people and I have really felt proud and privileged to be able to be with the team for the five years and in all of those years getting the constructors' title.

"Also, [there were] some FIA drivers' championship trophies for me. Not the winning one, but some other trophies which is something I guess."

Thanking the behind-the-scenes personnel from Brackley and Mercedes high-performance powertrains factory in Brixworth, Bottas added: "I just wanted to say again, thank you for all of the support in the five years when I have been with Mercedes. The support means a lot.

"Also, to everyone in the team that I said goodbye to, it was a really special day. Thank you."

Kiitos Valtteri. 👋 One last ride in Mercedes black and white. 💙 pic.twitter.com/0NYgCIdn6i

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) December 17, 2021

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