‘It’s a bit of a complicated situation’ – Valtteri Bottas says talks on future will ‘reset’ after Mattia Binotto arrival

“It is going to reset a bit the talks, because we have previously been in communication with Andreas [Seidl] and Oliver [Hoffmann], and now it’s Mattia [Binotto],” Bottas said during the press conference ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix. “For sure that will change some things, so we need to speak.

“It’s a bit of a complicated situation, but let’s see.”

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Binotto, 54, will be joined by Jonathan Wheatley, who is departing his role as Red Bull’s Sporting Director to become Team Principal at Audi, and with three major leadership changes in the last three years, Bottas believes the team has a lot of work still to do ahead of Audi’s formal entry.

“Mattia [Binotto] needs to know what are the weaknesses, what are the strengths, what are the priorities for short and long-term improvements, and that’s going to take a bit of time,” the Finnish driver explained. “Obviously, some things are internal, but we know that compared to, let’s say, to the big teams, we’re still lacking a bit of human power.

“There are certain areas that we definitely need to focus on, at the factory but also with the car performance. We’re at the moment not where we need to be and that’s, basically, we needed some new upgrades and [we need to head] into the right direction.”