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?
 
A single point who would have ever of thought it of Williams, way to go Frank..:thumbsup: Anyone who know anything about the history of the Williams team would know that Frank brought this upon himself, the rot set in when he sacked Damon and because of that Newey left and so did Renault, not your wisest decision mate treating drivers as a plug in fitting and now ironically you have to rely on their cash just to survive, I have no sympathy for you or your team....
 
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Bottas out qualified Pastor again in India and their was an interesting debate between Brundle and Crofty on how good he's been this season.

Conclusion seems to be that he's been a lot better than the Williams car has been making him look but not as amazing as the hype made out he would be.

We all know I was a fan and I think he's done a pretty decent job under bad conditions this year. I am a little dissapointed we've seen him on better form come race day I have to say.
 
Firstly Jen swearing is not very lady like and secondly you know what I mean so uncalled for.

Canada was in the wet and left many of the doubters saying he lucked in with the weather. Constant quick times and sectors on a dry track shows unarguabley the boy is quick.
 
RasputinLives, I've never claimed to be a lady :) and am not quite sure that i knew what you meant, an assumption too far perhaps.

Yes, the guy is speedy; but so are the others (on the whole) - all are faster than the average johnny though. That is why we are led to believe that there are only 22 worthy to be on the grid.

You, I and anyone who follows F1 know that to be bollocks (there I've done it again!).

However, I do believe that he is suitably skilled and should be driving in F1 (and a 'nice lad', as if that makes any difference) - one of the few that should be there by right because he is capable.
 
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Valteri is one of the few of the new crop who actually has a decent record in feeder series. Like any other driver he needs a car he can shine in and show us what he's got. re-read the OP for a reminder. Meanwhile check out his stat's (If you want a laff compare them with some of the other blokes like Perez and Chilton): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valtteri_Bottas
 
Disappointed in Bottas today. His race-craft in the first third of the race was strange to say the least. Being a lap down by the time he collided with Hamilton was pretty poor. Hopefully, it was just some kind end of season aberration. Maybe I put a jinx on him with my praise in an earlier post!
 
Ermmm. Lewis didn't even see Bottas was there and turned on to his line. You watch Bottas held his position the whole time.

He had the faster car and the DRS boost. He can't just be expected to hang back behind him and ruin his own race. He took an outside line and held it. He wasn't just stupidly throwing it up the inside in a gap that was always going to dissapear.

Lewis made an error and didn't watch for him. It wasn't out of malice or stupidity it was just an error. All drivers make em.

How you can blame Bottas for that I don't know. Is my view, was Brundles view and was the stewards view.

Now you can debate over the matter on whether a lapped driver should get DRS or not. That is a stupid rule but with the current rules Bottas did things as correct as he could.

Sorry guys but I think you're looking for someone else to blame on this one.
 
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