Current Valtteri Bottas

…….and finally Williams confirm that Valtteri Bottas will be in the race seat for the 2013 season. As I’m seen on here as his biggest fan I thought I better get an article written and a thread started for the lad.

Born 28th August 1989 in Nastola Finland he currently resides in Oxford. His single seater career started in 2007 with a 3rd place in the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC series, he followed that up in 2008 by winning the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC series and the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup series. In 2009 he stepped up to the Formula 3 Euroseries coming 3rd but winning the Maters of Formula 3 one off race a feat he was to repeat in 2010. 2011 was the year he suddenly jumped to everyones attention when he cruised to the GP3 championship and spent the whole season as Williams test driver impressing big time in the 2011 Abu Dhabi young drivers test by setting pretty competitive times in a car which wasn’t viewed as very quick. He was so impressive he put himself in the running for the Williams F1 seat but in the end the team went with bringing in the funds of Bruno Senna but satisfied Bottas with a contract which made sure he got plenty of running in the car on a Friday morning something that he grabbed hold of with both hands.

Not running in any other series meant Valtteri was concentrating completely on his job as Williams and a lot of essential team members at Williams have come out and said how much help he has been at setting up the car, which seeing as the Williams was a far better car this year can only be seen as a plus for him. A year doing test stuff must have been frustrating but in the long run I actually think it might be a big plus for him as he’s had a whole season of watching and learning how a technical team like Williams work and will certainly have a lot more knowledge of set up and how an F1 team works than the majority of rookies coming in. Of course its helped even more that he’s impressed in his Friday morning sessions, keeping pace with Maldonado on nearly every occasion and beating him on a fair few. This has of course lead to complaints from Bruno Senna about how he is not as quick due to not getting enough time but I can twist that round on itself because Bottas had even less time yet seemed to be able to jump in the car and be on the pace. What can he do with a full weekend in the cockpit? I guess we’ll see.

So we’ve seen he has pace, we’re told he had technical know how, and his junior career shows he knows how to win so it all looks good but having said that a lot of drivers have looked good and not been able to translate it so the proof is in the pudding as they say. So why have I championed him so much? Well to me Williams are a big team and should act like a big team. They got their Renault engines back and showed they can still design a car and produced a race winning one for 2012 and I can’t help but feel if their driver selection had been more about talent than funds we’d have seen them finish a lot higher up in the championship. Maldonado is a winner, he has pace, he just needs to calm down. I couldn’t say the same for Senna, so when you see a talented youngster who is obviously quick but has no financial backing whatsoever I can’t help but root for Williams to take a gamble on bringing him in.

So now we know he’ll get his shot and we’ll see whether he can match the faith shown in him. Lets also hope that Williams give him a car to show us he has talent. The second rookie on the grid for next year and this is the first rookie for a while that’s come in on talent with very little financial backing something I think Formula 1 could do with more of.

So before he turns a wheel what do we thing? The next flying Finn or the worst Scandinavian since Magnuersen?
 
It was clearly team orders ! i think Valtteri will have to be No 2 seeing how fast Ferrari and Vettel are unless he ups his pace
 
So much for Mercedes saying that they give their drivers equality.

I wonder if we will ever get "Valtteri is faster than you Lewis".
 
I think it's very sad, it ruins Motorsport. Why shouldn't Hamilton and Vettel work for their race position on track, if they are so superior let's see their superiority on track. In a way it's a sort of race fixing, I'm surprised the bookies don't do something about it.
 
Because people forget Motorsport has, and will always be, a team sport. We focus far too much on the individual. Think how many people have worked hard to get those cars prepared and to the speed they can get. In reality the driver is just the final part of a well put together team. They just get all the focus. Bit like the last leg in a relay race.
 
I wish team orders weren't necessary but I'm sure any team would rather have their drivers finish the WDC in 1st and 3rd than 2nd and 3rd. It looks like this season is going to be a fight between Lewis and Seb, even if Bottas gets in the mix now and again. Mercedes could stay out of it and let its drivers take points off each other and finish 2nd and 3rd (McLaren comes to mind with Lewis and Fernando) or have team orders and ensure Lewis maximizes points. When it was a Nico/Lewis battle, they could afford to be hands off but that is not the case anymore.
 
How about best way to summarise motorsport is compare it to cycling especially Tour De France .

You have a team of riders but the whole focus of the team is make sure the lead rider wins even if you think you're a better rider which certainly caused problems when Lance Armstrong was in the same team as Alberto Contador and lately both Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome as part of Team Sky had to defer to Bradley Wiggins.

It is a team sport that ultimate purpose is to ensure their best driver wins . Is it wrong ? Well that has been happening since F1 began so its hardly new..
 
Bill Boddy I think people had sympathy for Felipe thinking it was a year after his accident and waiting for a fairy tale story which never happened and was stolen from him

I don't believe that Mercedes asked Bottas to move over for Hamilton, while Valteri was leading the race. The same thing can't be said for Felipe at Hockenheim in 2010. When he was given that infamous call that, " Fernando is faster than you, " while I think that Massa was leading the race.
 
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I'm not a fan of Valterri, but he may be a really good driver, well in the Mercedes anyway. He should at least be allowed to prove himself against his team mate.

I hate team orders.

I wonder if part of the negotiating with Hamilton and the team, after Rosbergs sudden departure, was that Hamilton was undisputed number 1 ?
 
Let's not make any bones about this. If Mercedes had been facing a competitive Ferrari for the last three years Rosberg fate would have been the same as Bottas's now.

They can talk about 'the show' and 'racing equality' all they like but it's all smoke they're blowing up our arse. Their number 1 priority is for Merc to win and they Don't give a crap about anything else. Which is at it should be.

(Which is why I never trust any race they are in with a team who has their customer engines.)
 
Bottas was hardly showing the necessary skill to challenge Vettel either, was he?

If the "Number 2" proves faster, there's no team that'll pull them over. He had proved himself slower at the time of the decision.

Felipe Massa showed you don't necessarily stay number 2 back in 2008.
 
Also remember that Bottas has a one year contract, he might be playing long game and playing ball so he can get a multi year contract
 
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