EXCLUSIVE: The rude wake-up that nearly saw Valtteri Bottas race in Baku

Valtteri Bottas has revealed just how close he came to racing for Mercedes at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The 36-year-old Finn was on standby in his role as Mercedes’ reserve driver in Baku when illness left George Russell's participation in doubt.

Russell skipped Thursday’s media duties in Azerbaijan after feeling unwell in the lead up to the event, but ultimately recovered in time to take part in Friday practice and the remainder of the weekend. He went on to claim an impressive podium in second place. 

For a brief moment, Bottas thought the chance he had been waiting for all season had finally come. But he wasn’t exactly ready when he received a rather abrupt wake-up call on Friday morning, as he explained to Crash.net in an exclusive interview.

“I think it was pretty close,” Bottas told Crash.net ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.

“It was only up until one hour before FP1 that he decided that he's going to try. That’s when we have to decide the pedal setups and seats and stuff like that.  Until then I was ready. I was well prepped with the engineers for the day.

“I basically woke up to Paul [Ripke], my travel guy, banging on my door when I was still sleeping. He said, 'we’ve got to go get ready'. I was like, ‘all right, let's go’ but it didn't happen.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted that it was at one stage “touch and go” whether Russell would be able to race in Azerbaijan.

“Very impressive, considering that on Friday morning it was touch and go whether Valtteri would be in the car,” Wolff explained in Baku.

“It was George himself that said, ‘I’m not sure I can do it’. Then he recovered a little bit in the morning and decided to be in the car, and then every day he went strong.

“Doing a one-and-a-half-hour race here in Baku, not putting a single foot wrong on both tyres, that was a super merited P2.”

Valtteri Bottas's F1 standby paranoia  

Bottas revealed that he was initially “paranoid” about the possibility of stepping in for one of Mercedes’ regular drivers at short notice as he adjusted to life in his new reserve role for 2025. 

“I think earlier in the year, I was a bit more paranoid. I would wake up in the morning and first thing I would check would be my phone, in case there's any possibility to come in,” he explained.

“But I’m a bit more relaxed on that and if it happens, it happens. I feel like I'm ready in any case.”

As each race ticks by, Bottas knows he is less likely to make a cameo race outing this year. He also acknowledges that jumping in at the last-minute is more challenging now that drivers are fully up to speed with their machinery.

“It is tricky and also, I know the fact the longer the season goes, it's getting more and more difficult to jump in,” Bottas added. “All the drivers, they're so tuned in. The gaps are so small that it's going to be more and more difficult to do the job properly if I jump in. But in the end, that's my job.

“I just rely on my experience from the past and the few test days that I've had this year that I would be fine. Kind of just go with it and see what happens. There's still quite a few races left, so you just never know.”

Bottas won’t have to wait too much longer to return to race in F1, however, having signed a deal with Cadillac for the 2026 season.