Toto Wolff: 'Sponsor enabled Valtteri Bottas switch'

One sponsor could have made the difference when it came to Valtteri Bottas securing the Mercedes seat for 2017.

Team boss Toto Wolff has admitted that Bottas's major sponsor at Williams, Antti Aarnio-Wihuri, made the crucial decision to switch his allegiance to Mercedes this year.

"Yes, without it we would have put Pascal Wehrlein with Lewis Hamilton," Wolff is quoted as saying by Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat.

"Antti made is possible for us to move Valtteri to us.

"Valtteri certainly has other very important partners, such as Kemppi, but Antti enabled this agreement with Mercedes."

Bottas is third in the drivers' championship heading into Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix.