Valtteri Bottas’s wonderful beginning of the season is underlined by statistics, in which the Finnish driver is the bottom line in the entire series, writes Urheilun’s Roope Visuri.
9.5. 06:39 • Updated May 9th. 06:40
Valtteri Bottas slammed a mind-boggling comment after the time trials at the Miami F1 race in an interview with Viaplay. The Finn did not hesitate at all when he announced his goal for the race. Bottas said bluntly that the podium place would not be far away. At that point, many who watched Viaplay’s broadcast at night certainly shook their ears. The speech was really loud.
Bottas and the podium, shouldn’t that even be possible? After all, it wasn’t. Realistically, it certainly wasn’t at any point. This was already demonstrated by the start of the Miami race.
Bottas took a good start and even got close to Red Bull, who started from the fourth box Sergio Perez, but since then the Ferraris and Red Bulls, who have ruled through, have gone about their spending. The Finn was still getting a handsome fifth place at the wheel of Alfa Romeo and still ahead of his ex-team Mercedes drivers.
However, the great setup melted down when Bottas made a mistake just seven laps before the end. The car ran wide in a bend. Bottas also touched the track wall. The end result is a slight disappointment for the Finnish driver as well, but a small mistake does not remove the big picture. Seventh place is still a great achievement for Bottas. Especially also due to the asphalt problems raised by George Russell, who replaced Bottas Mercedes.
In any case, hardly anyone would have expected two months ago to expect Bottas, who had joined Alfa Romeo, to talk about podium places. So from investing in three, just driving and succeeding in the basics.
Overall, Bottas ’early season is much more than expected before the start of the season. The Finnish driver is eighth in the World Championship points fight and only five points away from his former teammate Lewis from Hamilton.
The beginning of the Finnish season has been tremendous in every way. It is further underlined by the following numbers, where Bottas is the bottom line of the whole series.
1) Bottas was left behind immediately in the tests
Two months ago, Bottas’ situation was rude. Bottas and Alfa Romeo ran into difficulties in the tests that prepared for the season, although there had to be a lot of investment in this season and the rule changes. Alfa Romeo stopped developing its car last season in April. The team’s engineers moved on to actively develop the car at a very early stage this season and prepared for major rule changes.
However, Bottas only got 213 laps in six days. Of the current race drivers who ran the full test program, only McLaren was behind Daniel Ricciardo and Haasin Mick Schumacher.
The starting point for the new season was by no means optimal. Of course, Alfa Romeo’s success is explained by the fact that Ferrari’s power was ahead of its competitors right from the opening race of the season. However, not everything can be put on the spike either.
Bottas has played a significant role, with Alfa Romeo, which was at the bottom of the F1 series in recent years, now ranked fifth in the team. The significance of Bottas is realized, for example, by looking at a Chinese teammate Guanyu Zhoun reading in the drivers table. There is exactly one point. Bottaksella 30.
2) Bottas succeeds, even if the training readings are left out
The wonderful start to the F1 driver in Nastola is also emphasized by the number of laps in the F1 race weekends. Even in them, the Finn is at the stern. The Finn immediately got a horrible start to Bahrain’s opening weekend when he got into a depot due to engine running problems. Bottas only got to run two laps in the opening practice. However, Bottas and Alfa Romeo were able to solve the problems. As a result of the times and races, the sixth place was immediately taken, ie a handsome start to the season.
In Saudi Arabia and Australia, Finns were seen as reasonably successful in their exercises. Australia eventually finished eighth in the race. Even from Saudi Arabia, Bottas would not have come home empty-handed without the engine’s elevated temperatures and hence the interruption.
In Imola, the Finn again ran into problems when, after the time trials, other exercises were interrupted due to a technical fault that struck the car in time. In the sprint race, the Finn was 12th, but the upswing in Imola continued to be the fifth best in the season so far.
The most recent race in Miami was still its own chapter in this regard. Bottas knocked out the demanding track in the opening practice. The car had to be crammed so much into the new belief that other exercises were missed. So on the new track, for the most part, I caught up with Saturday’s last practice. However, the Finnish driver was able to stretch to fifth in time.
The performance was even one of the best times of Bottas ’career when compared to the starting points. The run-off wasted preparation time, which would have been very important, especially on a demanding novelty track like Miami.
There is nothing in the readings about Imola except the first exercises, because in Imola the second exercises were run after time trials due to the sprint race format.
In practice, despite the difficulties and setbacks, Bottas has been able to make a wild result. The Finn now exudes considerable self-confidence, as the astonishing podium comment said.
Bottas has wonderfully taken over the role of team leader. At the same time, the Alfa Romeo team seems to work handsomely together. Although the number of laps from Bottas has remained small, Zhou’s lap readings, which are certainly at the top, have also helped Finns.
So the situation now looks extremely delicious in Finnish. If before the start of the season it was above the gloomy clouds in Finnish, now the sun is shining hard towards summer.
And the championship of the whole series doesn’t look funny either. An examination of the number of practice rounds on the weekends also revealed an interesting fact about the reigning world champion Red Bull About Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman has lagged behind in terms of the number of training laps for the most part.
Like Bottas, after Miami, a hat must also be raised for Verstappen.
Even on this occasion, Verstappen has had a short number of laps in practice this season due to Red Bull’s problems. So it was in Miami. Still, Verstappen was in a class of its own in Sunday’s race. The success of Verstappen and Red Bull is good for the championship battle, which at this pace is becoming quite a duel for young stars.
Charles Leclerc will not easily march as Ferrari ‘s first world champion since Kimi Räikkönen and 2007, although from the beginning of the season Red Bull’ s interruptions helped to escape.
Another 17 races to enjoy!