Bottas fears Stake struggles could impact his driver market value

Valtteri Bottas has acknowledged that the difficulties currently limiting results for Stake could impact his chances in this year’s driver market, as he ponders potential options in Formula 1 outside of the team.

The Sauber-run team has yet to score a point this season as it has struggled for performance on certain tracks, but also been severely hampered by pit stop issues. In Japan, a strong result slipped away from Bottas after he had been in the fight for Q3 on the Saturday. A full fix for the pit stop issue is not due until Imola and the Finn — who is out of contract at the end of this season — admits it’s harder to catch the eye when such opportunities are missed.

“That’s how motorsports works — sometimes it’s more difficult to show what you can do,” Bottas said. “I think the people that really look into the details and try to see how each driver is performing, they will see. But I would say that for the outside world, it’s tricky. When you’re not scoring, you’re almost hidden, in a way.

“I feel like I’ve had a couple of good qualifying sessions and good races so far, but they have been always compromised — something has happened, either on the stops or [something] else. All I can do is try and perform the best I can, so hopefully, the right people will see that.