A capable pair of hands to diffuse Nico Rosberg’s bombshell, a competent and commendable support act to Lewis Hamilton’s title challenge. However, beyond that, the paddock consensus was cynical about Valtteri’s ability to mount a credible challenge to perhaps the modern era’s most imposing all-rounder. Whilst fans, pundits and paddock sages didn’t expect him to be a Heikki Kovalainen, they didn’t expect him to be a Rosberg either.
However, nine races later, on the back of a consummate victory in Spielberg, having outqualified his illustrious team-mate on four occasions and having crossed a number of personal Rubicons, Valtteri is increasingly starting to ask questions of the preseason paddock wisdom. Has he in fact been doing as good a job as Rosberg would have done?
Of course, Rosberg is no linear reference point: last year alone he fluctuated from being plain faster than his team-mate in Singapore and Suzuka to scarcely being able to keep Lewis in sight in Austin and Mexico City. However, whilst it is unlikely that a man of Rosberg’s skill and experience would have spun under the safety car in Shanghai, and he arguably would have made more of a Bahrain Grand Prix starting from pole than Valtteri did, Bottas has otherwise been believably imitating Nico’s hypothetical level of performance.
It is a credit to the championship squad that they have salvaged a scenario that could have forced them to put the rather raw Pascal Wehrlein in the car, and instead have a driver more than capable of supporting a constructors’ championship charge (especially considering the perpetually disappointing from of his compatriot) and able to win when their star driver is having an off-colour weekend.
Hamilton has suffered somewhat off-colour weekends in Sochi, Monaco and Spielberg, and accordingly, Valtteri went on to lead Mercedes’ charge and be among the star performers of the weekends. However, Sochi was unquestionably the moment where Bottas’ clearly perceivable run of momentum originated. Underpinning that victory was starkly vivid, palpable relief tinged with a subtle frustration that he had not managed to win previously.
Sochi was a race that says tremendous things about his ability to go on to attain higher things in the future given his clearly tremendous belief in his own ability, and given the fact that when the opportunity came knocking, unlike Lewis’ last Finnish team-mate, he was able to produce his best performance level when the stakes were higher than ever.
It was certainly tempting to take a somewhat cynical view of Bottas’ reportedly troubled Bahrain race. Yes, he evidently suffered from the tyre pressures in the first stint, but the fact that his pace never truly recovered was rather symptomatic of a driver overcome by the occasion of his first pole position. Compound that with an influx of harsh and evidently unnecessary questions about #2 drivers from the assembled press, and you would say that the pressure had never been higher for Valtteri going into the Russian Grand Prix weekend. He responded with cool, calm, cognizant clarity, and produced his best form and focus under immense pressure as only the greatest racing drivers can.
Since Sochi, Bottas went on to arguably achieve the lap of the weekend in Monaco, getting within half a tenth of snatching pole from an otherwise imperious looking Scuderia, produced a stellar recovery drive to P2 following his first lap puncture in Baku, and his assured victory from pole at the weekend was headlined by a masterful start and opening stint on the ultra-soft tyres. Clearly, his confidence is snowballing as he acclimatises to his fresh challenge at the head of the field.
So why did anyone ever doubt Valtteri? In many ways, his quality was apparent from the outset. Whilst he was a slightly less searing speed than that of his junior series rivals Bianchi and Ricciardo, titles in Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup (a campaign which featured a stellar, must-watch, last-lap battle with Ricciardo at Silverstone, embedded below) and GP3 nonetheless bore all the hallmarks of a diligent, cerebral competitor in the mold of Sebastian Vettel. Despite not driving in GP2 or Formula Renault 3.5, a year as Williams’ reserve driver proved a more than adequate stepping-stone and Valtteri was soon comparing well to Maldonado in albeit uncompetitive FW35 in F1.
YouTube: Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup 2008 – Ricciardo vs Bottas, last lap
However, 2014 was the year that Valtteri started to earn paddock notoriety. Stellar performances from the back of the grid to the podium at Silverstone, and a study in serenity under pressure from a charging Hamilton at Hockenheim remain among the highlights of his F1 career. As a man labelled a future champion by team principal Claire Williams and one already receiving admiring glances from the likes of Ferrari; Valtteri Bottas’ career trajectory was enviable.
Though arguably that trajectory quite markedly plateaued for 2015/6. It was perhaps concerning that his delta to team-mate Massa actually decreased for the 2015 season, and often poor starts or sub-optimal Q3 laps would put him in frustrating situations like being stuck behind his teammate at Silverstone when he could have been leading.
In 2016, whilst Force India could always rely on banzai performances from the superb duo of Hulkenberg and Perez, other than a magnificent podium in Montreal, truly special showings from Valtteri were few and far between. It was telling that despite the fact Valtteri had no contract for 2017, the Scuderia made no move to sign a driver they had previously expressed such interest in.
More generally, there was an impression in the paddock that Valtteri, whilst undeniably calculated and dedicated, was perhaps lacking the fire, the burning urge to prove that they are the best embedded in all champions. That is no reflection of his utterly Finnish lack of joie de vivre, nor of the fact that he is among the most friendly and approachable faces in the paddock (Ricciardo and Vettel are too, and nobody is questioning their passion), but of the need to impose oneself on a team and to inspire an inner circle of essential individuals around you. Versus an infinitely more extrovert and expressive individual like Hamilton, Bottas’ ability to drive the team’s strategy and development is arguably compromised.
However, that is perhaps less important this year because the opposition for Mercedes is not the other side of the garage but a rejuvenated Scuderia headed by one of the most formidable operators on the grid. With Vettel squarely in the cross hairs of the three-pointed star, the emphasis on how Bottas compares with a title-challenging team-mate he will likely be required to support is reduced.
Yes, Valtteri is #2 in all but name, but in entering the lion’s den, in being parachuted into Hamilton’s team, it is worth asking whether we should have expected anything else. And even if he is supporting Lewis this year, that doesn’t detract from the flashes of irrefutable excellence we are persistently seeing from Valtteri this year, and nor does it detract from the chances of him perhaps forging a title challenge of his own in the future.
