Mercedes F1 star Valtteri Bottas has put himself in the picture for a shock Red Bull switch, claiming the team ‘need a driver with experience’.

Bottas is currently out of a full-time seat in F1, having been axed by Sauber at the end of 2024, but the Finnish driver is now a reserve driver at the team with whom he drove between 2017-2021, Mercedes.

Bottas is on hand for Mercedes, McLaren and Williams in 2025 – should they need somebody to step into their cars for a race or two – but his ultimate aim is to get himself back onto the F1 grid full-time.

The incoming new team on the grid may help him to do that, with Cadillac actively looking for at least one driver who has a plethora of F1 experience.

As a 10-time grands prix winner, Bottas certainly fits that bill, but he now seemingly has his eyes set on another prize.

While speaking about the struggles of young drivers Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull in 2025, Bottas seemed to suggest that he may be the right man for the job.

“It’s a tough one because it seems like it’s not an easy car to drive,” he told the Beyond the Grid podcast.

“Obviously Max is doing the job, he’s really pushing almost beyond the limits of the car, and whoever has been alongside him hasn’t looked great.

“But I don’t know. I just wonder if that car, to be driven fast, needs a driver with experience.

“That’s my speculation, but I think they know that I’m keen to race. They know that I would be available for next year, but I don’t know their mindset on that.”

Will Red Bull swap their driver lineup again?

Just two races into the 2025 season, Red Bull made the stunning decision to swap out Lawson for Tsunoda having originally snubbed the Japanese driver for a promotion at the end of 2024.

Tsunoda has not fared much better, however, and sits 15th in the drivers’ championship with just 10 points, only seven of which were achieved with Red Bull.

Isack Hadjar, who races with Red Bull’s junior team Racing Bulls, is currently sat on 21 points, more than Tsunoda and Lawson combined despite not having raced for the main team at any point in the season.

The Red Bull car has clearly been difficult to drive for at least the last 12 months or so, with even six-time race winner Sergio Perez putting in some dismal performances at the back end of 2024.

It appears to be only Max Verstappen who can extract performance from the current RB21, although even he is sat 49 points behind world championship leader Oscar Piastri after nine rounds of the season.