Yahoo Autos Valtteri Bottas Is Doing What He Does Best
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Formula 1 is a strange sport, one where team context matters more than just about anywhere else in the world. At Williams, Valtteri Bottas was a star for championship finishes of fourth, fifth, and eighth. At Mercedes, he was a disappointment for championship finishes of third, fifth, and second. Bottas had already proven himself capable of leading a hungry mid-field team when he came to the sport's top program, where 10 wins over five years added up to underperforming. Now, he is back to doing what he did best.
This is the eighth installment of our driver-by-driver preview of the 2023 Formula 1 season. This weekend, we will be covering Sauber's Alfa Romeo-branded program. You can find the rest of our previews here.
When it became clear Bottas would have to return to the back of the mid-field last offseason, he reportedly had a choice between returning to Williams and leading the Alfa Romeo-branded Sauber program. Bottas unexpectedly chose Alfa Romeo, a decision that has looked brilliant through one season.
HOW HE GOT HERE
Bottas is most notable as Lewis Hamilton's former co-star, but he was once a promising prospect of his own. His decorated resume starts with success in the former Formula Renault 2.0 categories, beginning with a few wins in the now-defunct Northern European Cup championship in 2007. After two years in FR2.0 cars, he moved to what was then the Formula 3 Euro Series for two years, recording third place finishes in both seasons. His debut in a support series following Formula 1 finally came in 2011, winning what was then the GP3 series over a strange and scattered field highlighted by future sports car aces James Calado and Michael Christensen, future Formula E driver Mitch Evans, and future IndyCar drivers Conor Daly and Gabby Chaves.
He took the 2012 season off before making his Formula 1 debut with Williams in 2013, his first of four seasons with the program. That rookie year was quiet, but the program was relatively strong in the three years that followed, and he proved to be strong in the car, driving to championship finishes of fourth, fifth, and eighth while scoring nine podiums for a team that has struggled to score points in the years since.
That led him to Mercedes, where he has largely disappointed to live up to a standard set by Nico Rosberg. He has just ten grand prix wins over five seasons, although his 20 poles in that same stretch are certainly respectable. He finished as the championship runner-up two times in five seasons, but came nowhere close to challenging Hamilton in any.
HOW 2022 WENT
Bottas quickly returned to his exceptional mid-field form at Alfa Romeo. Despite falling from third to tenth in the championship, he ran some of the best races of his career in the first half of the year to collect points in seven of his first nine races. That form tailed off over the second half of the season, with Bottas scoring points just twice more and allowing teammate Zhou Guanyu to put up a more competitive fight against him in qualifying, but the results were still enough to secure 10th in the driver's championship.
That is eight positions ahead of his rookie teammate, and enough to beat out fellow former race winners Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo. Bottas scored 49 of the team's 55 points, enough to carry the team to a tie for sixth in the constructor's standings. Despite running in a middling car, it was an exceptional performance.
GOALS FOR 2023
As the calendar turns to 2023, the question is which Alfa Romeo, and which Bottas, we see this year. Bottas put in fewer starring performances as the car faded, but at moments in 2022 the team seemed capable of fighting for more than just the ninths and tenths back-of-the-field teams need in their championship battles. If the car is ready, Bottas seems to be ready to string together another run of finishes in the middle of the top ten that could make a whole season for a team like this.
Bottas is only 33, but he is on the wrong side of his shot at a championship-caliber team. At this point, he is a qualified mid-field driver in his prime. Any questions at Alfa Romeo are about what the team can do without former leader Frédéric Vasseur and what rookie teammate Zhou Guanyu can eventually become. On his end, Bottas just has to worry about maintaining his form.
A SUCCESSFUL SEASON LOOKS LIKE...
Relative to his expectations, Bottas had one of the most successful seasons in Formula 1 last year. Success looks very similar. He should be fighting for spots in the top 10 weekly, should put together a string of points-paying finishes when the car is strong enough even without heavy attrition near the front of the grid, and should be a regular in Q3. If he can do that all year, rather than just the first half of the season, he will be doing his job. Doing all of that while keeping the mullet he's grown over the past year is an added bonus.
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