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?
 
Ferrari who have one of the most talented young drivers in the world in their car currently after promoting him through their academy? How did they not plan for the future driver wise? The car is crap it's true but that ain't LeClercs fault.

No its not Leclerc's fault but getting rid of Kimi way before might have given Vettel the kick up the bum needed because Kimi was your typical contracted No 2 unfortunately too slow and not motivated enough to perform. Vettel then started bemoaining when no one at Ferrari was showing enough leadership to take charge and manage the situation better. Mercedes need something better than a No 2 of the Kimi mould.

Bottas will be dreading hearing the word "Wingman" if the next few races do not go to plan as he bemoans a bad season this has been since round 1
 
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Which is why Toto is buying into Aston Martin to give him option to do so.
I think Bottas has only 1 more season in the car to be honest because both Russell and Ocon's contract are up. The danger will be if Mercedes are left behind to succession plan. The outside bet is if Hamilton's contract talks breaks down they want to swoop for Verstappen which is why Bottas is still there. Hamilton was signed as No2 and scared off Alonso to world champ. Rosberg was No2 because Schumacher made a fuss about car No 4 bs and eventually became world champ. Button was treated as No 2 during Flavio's period but proved people wrong. Mansell and Hill were No 2s before being world champs
As I said not many🙄
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Well I guess one of the No 2s who did not become world champ was Mark Webber.
 
No its not Leclerc's fault but getting rid of Kimi way before might have given Vettel the kick up the bum needed because Kimi was your typical contracted No 2 unfortunately too slow and not motivated enough to perform. Vettel then started bemoaining when no one at Ferrari was showing enough leadership to take charge and manage the situation better. Mercedes need something better than a No 2 of the Kimi mould.

Bottas will be dreading hearing the word "Wingman" if the next few races do not go to plan as he bemoans a bad season this has been since round 1

I think what's happened to Vettel since they've brought LeClerc in shows exactly why they had Kimi.
 
I think what's happened to Vettel since they've brought LeClerc in shows exactly why they had Kimi.

i like kimi his final win at circuit of the americas. is 1 of my highlights of last 5 yrs. but vettel was comfortable v kimi but comfortable is not quick. proved what i felt that ferrari had been under performing. & leclerc showed how much pace Vettel had been leaving on the table. espically Belgian GP when in verstappen style Leclerc was fighting with the Mercedes. vettel was no where 7 tenths off in qualifying & 30 secs off in the race

but it probably is what id like to see. because I want to see a battle not a walkover. as i said its hardly encouraging that 2021 title race is over in 2020. at least in the schumacher & Irvine/Barrichello era. we had Hakkinen, Raikkonen & Alonso. but this is 1988. that is the fault of others not being good enough
 
i like kimi his final win at circuit of the americas. is 1 of my highlights of last 5 yrs. but vettel was comfortable v kimi but comfortable is not quick. proved what i felt that ferrari had been under performing. & leclerc showed how much pace Vettel had been leaving on the table. espically Belgian GP when in verstappen style Leclerc was fighting with the Mercedes. vettel was no where 7 tenths off in qualifying & 30 secs off in the race

but it probably is what id like to see. because I want to see a battle not a walkover. as i said its hardly encouraging that 2021 title race is over in 2020. at least in the schumacher & Irvine/Barrichello era. we had Hakkinen, Raikkonen & Alonso. but this is 1988. that is the fault of others not being good enough

And Bottas simply not good enough to at least be 2nd place all the time which is what Rosberg did to keep himself in the battle
 
has bottas been talked too after last week. because he seemed abit more fighty this week. was very quick to say that he had plenty on the table left & then the radio messages he was very assertive
 
It’s almost like Hamilton is toying with him. How many times is Bottas close to Hamilton in the early phase of a race, then a few laps before a pit stop like FB has mentioned Hamilton puts in the lap times that make him disappear into the distance. Bottas is a solid driver but nothing else.
 
Bottas is a mid-mid-tier talent that was hired to be a doormat for Hamilton while still taking points from everyone else. M_B had their #1 driver beaten by their #2 once and weren't about to risk it happening again, so they hired a mediocre driver.
 
Really :facepalm:

MB may have had a few grumbles when Hamilton and Rosberg got a bit fruity but I don't remember them having too many problems with Hamilton and Rosberg going toe to toe.
 
Clearly Mercedes didn't want Rosberg to beat Hamilton a second time, which is why they sacked him and replaced him with Bottas.

Oh wait ...
 
thats an issue too. because there a few hes won on pace but most on luck. he's going to look at the picture & think i won that race because Lewis had floor damage. because he got a penalty, because he qualifed 10th
 
Silverstone - Hamilton lead from pole & lead the entire way. looking at youtube when Bottas tyre blew Hamilton was 8 secs clear. so thats another comfortable victory for lewis

nurburgring - Bottas locked & made his own mistake under the pressure, wasnt going to win that race because he had to pit early. make a 2 stopper or a 1 stopper with a very long final stint, either way wouldve lost to verstappen,

the problem with last sunday, is the removed the offending article & hamilton took fastest lap after fastest lap. even when his car was mended & SC closed the gap. he couldnt challenge Lewis.
 

Button: 'Then Lewis was a bit the same as Valtteri is now'​

"If you compare his racing speed today with Valtteri Bottas' speed, you see a different Lewis than the one I experienced.
He was a bit the same then as Valtteri is now: very fast in qualifying, but during the race he made more mistakes that cost him victories,"
 
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