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?
 
you'll be glad to know, that i refrained because last time he won Australian gp & told me numerous times to :censored: off LOL
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Well, I gather Ocon is under a two-year contract with Renault so he is out of the picture for the moment (while Valtteri is under yet another one-year contract). So I think by default, Bottas is there for the next two years. I am not sure who they would choose beside him for 2021 and I am assuming the Hamilton is staying there until retirement.
 
Next season when everyone's contract is up even Bottas' seat is not guaranteed. Alonso says he will consider returning and Mercedes have shown they are not afraid to bring a driver out of retirement as part of their marketing.

Merc want drivers who would represent the brand in the right way but also the best drivers available. If Hamilton were to go then they would want a world champion driver that can still cut it at the top - that excludes Kimi.

Ocon might take Bottas' seat as Renault said they want to promote an academy driver into the team in 2021 although naturally that would mean Riccardo goes to make way who also might look at Bottas' seat

For Bottas to keep his seat next season he has to show to he can sustain a championship challenge and not have too many off races against Hamilton
 
It's possible that his body shape has changed due to a change in his type of work out. He recently started dating Aussie Tiffany Cromwell who is a pro cyclist and there is a lot online about them being training partners during Covid to keep themselves fit. Maybe doing things different has done things different for Valterri - who knows? Certainly didn't slow him down at weekend.
 
I'm just so used to seeing super-slim racing drivers, that it's always quite surprising seeing a driver who has more mass.

I know that he was very happy when the 2019 regs came in, so that he no longer needed to starve himself...
 
i keep seeing this article & all i can think is this monty python sketch
its not drifting. Title race is no more! its has ceased to be! expired & gone to meet its maker!. title race has kicked the bucket, shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain & joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-TITLE RACE!! LOL LOL


 
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There was never a title challenge from Valtteri Bottas in the first place anyway. Every year he comes back from the winter break and there’s all this rubbish from him saying, “ I’m fitter than ever” or “I’ve been working on how to be faster in certain corners”. All of a sudden the media get hold of it and we get this Bottas 2.0 or Bottas 3.0 nonsense. He’s a solid number 2 driver and while he is teammate to Lewis Hamilton, in that Mercedes he will never be World Champion,as he isn’t consistent enough, and he hasn’t got that killer instinct that all top level athletes have.
 
All this plus Merc don't want him to win the title. He was brought in to do a job for them where he scores as many points as he can without getting to near to Lewis Hamilton. They did not want a Rosberg situation again. You actually have to say he does a good job of what he needs to do. Qualifies on front row, gets at least a podium most times out, picks up wins when Lewis is having a bad day and co-operates when giving team orders.. Don't think the team want much more from him.
 
How about take points off Max Verstappen now ?Make what you will off it but he was beginning to chase down Verstappen then did a late pit stop to preserve fastest lap and at least 3rd place.

The Mercedes driver pairing off the past has always been about pairing one experienced driver with one junior driver certainly DTM, GT and Sportscar racing. Not sure they are willing to do this yet in F1or there is too much at stake .

Someone pointed that Bottas has had a faster car since 2017 and yet has won less races than Verstappen
 
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