Valtteri Bottas’ seven-word WhatsApp message to Toto Wolff taunting Mercedes

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has revealed former driver Valtteri Bottas sent him a seven-word WhatsApp message after the Finn’s impressive qualifying on Saturday. Bottas lined up next to his former team-mate Hamilton in sixth place and out-qualified Mercedes new boy George Russell, who was only able to secure P9.

Alfa Romeo’s massive improvement in 2021 has been met by a shocking start to 2022 for the Silver Arrows. And Wolff received a message from his former driver straight after the session.

Wolff said: “He sent me a WhatsApp that said ‘look forward to racing you guys tomorrow’. I’m happy for him, for Valtteri, that he has made the move to Alfa, and he’s the lead driver.

“As far as I understand, he’s bringing his great personality to the team, and he’s energising the team.”

After Saturday’s session, Bottas was asked whether he had spoken to Wolff after bettering his Mercedes replacement. He jokingly replied: “Not yet, I don’t have my phone. I’ll go and see him!”

Bottas said he and Hamilton were “both smiling” after the shock result which he described as “pretty cool”.

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However, the great qualifying was almost ruined after a shocking start saw Bottas lose eight places on the first lap. He eventually recovered to finish sixth while new team-mate Zhou Guanyu was tenth on his debut.

The points haul means Alfa Romeo are fourth in the points standings behind Haas. After the race, Bottas said: “The race went really well, with the exception of the start: I got a lot of wheelspin and was basically a sitting duck for the first lap, just trying to avoid contact.

“When that stabilised, however, we had really good pace, we didn’t give up, executed a really good strategy and, in the end, completed a good recovery.

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“We took it lap by lap as we knew we had the car to get back in the top 10. It is a great way to start the season: there are still things to improve, of course, but we’re just at the first race of the year.

“Our priority was reliability and I am happy we could finish with both cars as the speed is there. Everyone did a good job and we are going in the right direction.”