Bottas "never seriously considered leaving F1" despite Mercedes exit

Valtteri Bottas has insisted he "never seriously considered" leaving F1 after departing Mercedes for Alfa Romeo.

The Finn's five-year tenure with the Silver Arrows came to the end with the team scoring its eighth consecutive constructors' championship, with George Russell now taking over as Lewis Hamiton's team-mate.

Bottas announced his move to Alfa Romeo ahead of last season's Italian Grand Prix and found form almost instantly, yet despite knowing his chances of victory at his new team are much more scarce, the 32-year-old suggested his passion for the sport ensured he would remain on the grid.

Asked in an end-of-season interview with GPFans whether there were any second thoughts over the Alfa Romeo move, Bottas replied: "Yes, for sure, I know going from a team that like I said, going to a race knowing that you have a chance to win a race, it's going to be different next year, realistically.

"Luckily, this change and with a new contract, nothing happened overnight, so I had actually quite a lot of time to process things and thinking about the difference in our roles.

"Of course, I also questioned myself, do I want this, or should I try doing something else?

"That was also one option, but I never seriously considered leaving Formula 1 because deep inside me, I still love Formula 1 and the competition and many things about it.

"Again, referring to this something new and a long-term project, that's the motivation for me, to try and help the team the best I can and I think it can be really rewarding if we achieve some good things."